The folkloric hero Robin Hood has appeared many times, in many different variations, in popular modern works.
Theatre
Robin Hood has appeared in a number of plays throughout the medieval, early modern and modern periods. The first record of a Robin Hood play being performed is in Exeter in 1426-27. The earliest surviving text of a Robin Hood play is dated c.1475 and entitled Robyn Hod and the Shryff off Notyngham.
The plays which perhaps have been most influential upon the Robin Hood legend as a whole are Anthony Munday's The Downfall of Robert, Earle of Huntington and The Death of Robert, Earle of Huntingdon (1597–98). It is in these plays that Robin is first depicted as a nobleman. Further plays followed during the early modern period such as the anonymous Looke About You (1600) and Robin Hood and his Crew of Soldiers (1661).
Radio
On 18 April 1992, BBC Radio 4 first broadcast John Fletcher's 90-minute radio play entitled The Legend of Robin Hood, which was a full cast drama that drew closely on the original Robin Hood ballads. It was directed by Nigel Bryant and featured music composed by Vic Gammon. As well as depicting some of Robin Hood's adventures in Sherwood Forest and Nottingham, it also covers a fruitless quest that Robin makes Little John to the Holy Land to help the crusaders.
On May 18, 2019, Augustine Institute released a full cast 12-part audio drama written and directed by Paul McCusker entitled The Legends of Robin Hood. Starring Gwilym Lee as Robin Hood (a.k.a. Robert of Locksley), Katie Foster-Barnes as Maid Marian (named Marian Fitzwalter in this version), with Robert Portal as Sir Guy of Gisbourne and Nicholas Boulten as Richard the Lionheart.
Books
The first published prose account of Robin Hood's life appears to be the anonymously authored The Noble Birth and Gallant Atchievements of that Remarkable Out-Law, Robin Hood (1678). Material from this work was often plagiarised by criminal biographers in works such as: The Whole Life and Merry Exploits of Bold Robin Hood (1712), Alexander Smith's A Complete History of the Lives and Robberies of the Most Notorious Highwaymen, Footpads, Shoplifts and Cheats (1719), Charles Johnson's Lives and Exploits of the Most Noted Highwaymen (1734). In addition, there were numerous books printed throughout the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that went by the name of Robin Hood's Garland. These were cheaply printed collections of later Robin Hood ballads.