Matt Lucas offered Robin Hood role

The monk was controversially omitted from the band of merry men in the first series of the Saturday-evening drama for fear he would be a ‘laughing stock’

Now BBC One controller Peter Fincham says he want to add the character to help the series ‘evolve’– adding that he wanted the Little Britain star to tkae the role.

‘I want Matt Lucas to do it,’ he said. ‘I have mentioned it to him and at the time he said “I would love to do that”.

‘If Matt Lucas said he'd play him I would be very happy.’

However, Lucas’s schedule may prevent him joining Robin Hood, which is filmed over several months in Romania.

Lucas and David Walliams are to embark on a brief tour Australia in the new year and are already working on a new sketch show for the corporation.

Lucas is appearing as Toad in the television adaptation of Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows on BBC One on Boxing Day.

Published: 7 Dec 2006