A first-look image and the casting have been announced for James Graham’s upcoming BBC One drama ‘Sherwood‘.
David Morrissey leads an all-star ensemble in the 6-part series which also stars Joanne Froggatt, Robert Glenister, Alun Armstrong, Lesley Manville, Adeel Akhtar, Claire Rushbrook, Kevin Doyle, Lorraine Ashbourne, Phillip Jackson, Perry Fitzpatrick, Adam Hugill and Stephen Tompkinson.
Inspired in part by real events, and set in the Nottinghamshire mining village where Graham grew up, ‘Sherwood’ is a contemporary drama at the heart of which lie two shocking and unexpected killings that shatter an already fractured community and spark a massive manhunt. As suspicion and antipathy build, between lifelong neighbours and towards the police forces who descend on the town, the tragic killings threaten to inflame historic divisions sparked during the Miners’ Strike three decades before.
‘Sherwood’ is at once a compelling crime drama that explores, for the first time, the controversial deployment of so-called ‘spycops’ around Britain, and it is a distinctly human story of a community forced to re-examine the terrible events of decades ago for which it still bears the scars and lasting pain.
It is also a powerfully resonant and timely examination of the frayed social and political fabric of modern-day, post-Brexit Britain. From the oft-ignored former “Red Wall” towns and communities who find their lives and futures reduced to political footballs and endless discourse from the commentariat of the day, to the entrenched anxiety that defines the relationship between all marginalised communities and the police force, and to the evolving role and uncertain future of protest itself, ‘Sherwood’ explores and exposes some of the most urgent fractures and discords that thread through modern British society.
Graham has written all six parts and will be an executive producer on the series.
Lewis Arnold (‘Time’, ‘Des’) is lead director and executive producer, and the producer is Rebecca Hodgson (‘The Irregulars’, ‘Deep Water’). Juliette Howell, Tessa Ross and Harriet Spencer are executive producers for House Productions and Ben Irving will executive produce for BBC.
‘Sherwood’ was commissioned by Charlotte Moore, BBC Chief Content Officer, and Piers Wenger, Director of BBC Drama. BBC Studios will distribute the series internationally.
