Robin Hood, Robin Hood, glowing cherry-red...

Russell Crowe will pound across cinema screens from tomorrow in the guise of Robin Hood, and with a whole new backstory (and main story) unrecognisable to those of us who have grown up with the legend (and, indeed, the unsurpassable Errol Flynn version).

Having seen a trailer, which prominently reminds us that the director Ridley Scott was also responsible for Gladiator, I’d say we’re in for more of the same — lots of murky forest, wide CGI vistas and a strange predilection for making every scene dreary with a blue or brown filter. Still, I could be wrong.

So, in celebration of (OK, and protest at) this latest reincarnation of one of our most English heroes, I thought I’d ferret out a connection with that most English flower, the rose.