Prepare to become completely hooked: Christine Jardine reviews 'Sherwood: Series 2'
David Morrissey plays DCS Ian St Clair | Image by: BBC/House Productions/Sam Taylor
3 min read
Tension-packed and emotional, the second season of James Graham’s crime drama set in a divided former mining community is superbly written and acted
I am not sure why I didn’t watch all of the first series of Sherwood, but I am regretting it now that I am completely hooked on the second one.
I suspect that late Monday nights in Parliament scuppered my viewing after the first episode of the original and it became difficult to catch up.
But not this time.
It’s not just the fantastic cast – although any production which boasts David Morrissey, Lesley Manville, Robert Lindsay and Lorraine Ashbourne obviously has something to offer.
Nor just the fact it is set in the sort of bitter, post-industrial, post-dispute community that so many of us recognise.
Monica Dolan as Ann Branson and Perry Fitzpatrick as Rory Sparrow | Image by: BBC/House Productions/Sam Taylor
It’s the combination of those built onto writing and acting which are simply superb and have already made this into must-watch TV for me.
I love those dramas where you think you have the plot at least understood – if not completely worked out – when something comes completely out of left field to throw and enthral you.
That is Sherwood.
After just three episodes I am already invested in the characters, frustrated by their mistakes and willing them to get it right, and survive whatever the fantastic James Graham has up that very clever script-writing sleeve of his.
After just three episodes I am already invested in the characters
To make sure I am not missing anything, I could, of course, go back to look at the first series, based on stories, some of them little more than rumours, which emerged from the hell that was the 1984-5 miners’ strike.
But so far I haven’t felt the need.
This tale is completely fictional, inspired by elements taken from Graham’s native East Midlands, and stands on its own merits.
And while what might seem like history to some, for so many communities it is a legacy which is only too real.
To use the planned opening of a new coal mine as the backdrop for this series brings the tension bang up-to-date. I can’t wait to understand its significance.
And that acting which I mentioned: every performance is outstanding. There was one scene in episode three, and I won’t give away the plot, when Monica Dolan even managed to give her appalling, shameless character Ann Branson a fleeting but touching moment of human frailty.
The only disappointment about this season is that there are only six, tension-packed and emotional, episodes.
I have no idea at this point what to expect from the ending but I am already hoping that it either leaves a door open for a third series – or James Graham can be persuaded to let us share more of his creations.
Christine Jardine is Lib Dem MP for Edinburgh West
Sherwood: Series 2
Written & created by: James Graham
Broadcaster: BBC iPlayer
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