My core thing is that I’ve worked with them and I know who they are. I’ve been in pressurised situations with them and I know how they cope. That was my attitude when I talked to Ridley.

You can throw all the A list names at me that you want but I’m not interested, I’m interested in a team. I’m interested in guys who will take on a physical challenge and spend whatever time is required.

I also need all the Merry Men to have a musical background and Ridley is like ‘Why?’ My thing was if you spend time in the army as these men do, if you are on this battlefield of brutality, then you have to know how to celebrate.

If you have made it through that day without an arrow through a part of your body dipped in horse urine - because it poisons your blood and you die - or cleaved in two by some knight in armour on horseback.

If you get to the end of the day then you have to know how to celebrate and then get ready to do it again the next day. It was very important to have the flexibility of having someone play. Allan A’Dayle knew how to play the lute so you didn’t have some actor there pretending.

You had to have that immediacy. The lute is the troubadour in the situation - he’s significantly more accurate. He is the guy who is going to tell the story of their lives, so you needed someone who could do that. The balance of the athleticism and the emotional availability is what I wanted in the Merry Men.

- This is a film everyone can watch, even kids because the violence is not too extreme, was that deliberate?

Deliberate on Ridley’s behalf and something we discussed. It would be very easy for him to revisit the same territory as Gladiator and severe heads and limbs here and there, but ultimately there is such a strong moral core to this story that you want kids to be able to see it.

I was happy to take my two boys and they are only aged six and three and a half because at the end of the day, even though it’s a big epic story, it’s what’s actually being said about altruism and about working on behalf of other people. These are very important things and these are great seeds to put in the hearts of kids.

Robin Hood is released on DVD 20th September.

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