It’s fair to call the arrival of Sherwood season two a British telly ‘event’ in the same way a fresh run of Line of Duty once would have been. Such is the quality of James Graham’s Nottingham-set crime drama that the prospect of another six episodes should – and probably will – reunite British viewers with their sofas sharpish.
The first two episodes aired over the Bank Holiday weekend, setting up the drama and themes that will unfold over the next few weeks (the final episodes airs on Monday, September 9). A violent crime committed by drug-dealing outsider Ryan Bottomley (Oliver Huntingdon) will set the community ablaze again and spark a turf war between local crime clans the Sparrows and the Bransons.
The newly-appointed Sheriff of Nottingham (Ria Zmitrowicz), meanwhile, is fighting a proposed new power station in the area – ramping up the political stakes.
Where was Sherwood season 2 filmed?
Season two prowls Nottingham’s official corridors of power as well diving into the county’s hard-bitten criminal underworld. Look out for Nottingham City Hall, a key location the series was given full access to. ‘When we were filming we got to film in the actual Sheriff’s office in City Hall and we got to meet the real Sheriff at the time,’ says creator James Graham.
Nottinghamshire County Council's headquarters was another municipal building used in season two, as was Nottingham’s 17th century castle. (The city’s famous Broadway Cinema hosted the series premiere.)
Nearby Bestwood Country Park also appears in the second season, as does West Burton Power Station, according to the BBC, and Sherwood Forest itself.
The crew went further afield, too. Bolton’s Ellesmere Road Social Club hosted the production in September 2023, while Skegness was the location where David Harewood’s Bottomley family go into hiding from the vengeful Bransons. One scene has the family walking on Skegness beach, backdropped by Lincs Offshore Wind Farm.
What year is the show set in?
Both seasons are set contemporaneously, although both wear the scars of decades-old tensions that date back to the 1980s miners’ strikes and explode in modern-day Nottinghamshire.
What true story is Sherwood based on?
The first season was loosely inspired by the murder of Nottinghamshire trade unionist Keith ‘Froggy’ Frogson, and more widely, the lingering divisions in a local community that stemmed from the bitter 1984/5 miners’ strike. Frogson, murdered by a strike breaker called Robert Boyer who’d been suffering from mental health issues at the time, was represented by Alun Armstrong’s former mining activist Gary Jackson in the first season of Sherwood.
Season two doesn’t have the same real-life inspo, but does use real social issues to fuel its drama. ‘It’s even more fictionalised than the first [series],’ says creator James Graham. ‘I've taken inspiration from many, many events within Nottinghamshire across multiple timeframes to create a brand-new fictional story.’
‘It’s inspired by periods in which the area faced very high levels of crime and violence,’ he adds. ‘I hope that people will enjoy it as a piece of drama but be able to see the impact of such industrial and political and socioeconomic factors.’
Who is in the Sherwood season 2 cast?
There are some big names joining season one staples David Morrissey, Lorraine Ashbourne, Lesley Manville, Claire Rushbrook and Perry Fitzpatrick for the second run. Monica Dolan, of Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa and The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe fame, plays criminal matriarch Ann Branson, while Game of Thrones’ Stephen Dillane is her husband Roy. Homeland’s David Harewood, legendary TV smoothy Robert Lindsay and Small Axe’s Sharlene Whyte are other new additions.
Where can you watch the series?
The first two episodes are on BBC iPlayer now, with new episodes released on Sunday and Monday evenings on BBC One and iPlayer until September 9.
What are the reviews like so far?
In a word? Glowing. ‘TV doesn’t get any more tense,’ raves The Guardian’s Michael Hogan of episode two. ‘TV of the highest order,’ agrees The Telegraph. ‘Sherwood season 2 has all the makings of what is already shaping up to be a stellar anthology series,’ writes Radio Times.
The Independent, meanwhile, sounded a more cautiously positive note, criticising season two’s ‘shoehorning’ of contemporary political issues. ‘If it aspired to be a “tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime” version of Line of Duty, it ends up as something more like Top Boy for Guardian readers.’
The best TV and streaming shows of 2024 (so far).
Where was The Jetty filmed? The locations behind the BBC mystery-thriller.