The truth behind the real-life stories of Sherwood season 2 revealed

Sherwood writer James Graham has revealed the truth behind the real-life stories and tragedies that inspired the BBC thriller.

The David Morrissey-starring drama is returning after two years, picking up from the series of dramatic crossbow murders in the Nottinghamshire mining village, where locals were left dealing with the trauma from the 1980s miners’ strikes.

Following the tensions with police and the trauma that left the community broken decades later, the new season delves into further divides, and local gangs with resurfaced rivalries and revenge plans.

Ahead of the second series airing, creator James has revealed that Sherwood has been ‘inspired’ by real events, though fictionalised from the world he grew up in.

The first instalment, it was previously revealed, was based on the real-life crossbow murders in James’ hometown of Annesley Woodhouse in Nottinghamshire in 2004, though the characters were fictionalised.

This season focuses on the ‘shotting’ days in Nottingham, when the city suffered a wave of shootings and organised crime that resulted in multiple innocent deaths.

The tragedies occurred when James himself lived in the city, working on the stage door of Nottingham’s Theatre Royal, he revealed.

The David Morrissey-starring drama returns tonight (Picture: BBC/House Productions/Sam Taylor)

Sherwood was inspired by the real-life events surrounding the town creator James Graham lived in (Picture: Jeff Spicer/Getty Images For SOLT)

Is Sherwood based on a true story?

Speaking about the real-life stories and inspiration that led to the second series, creator James told Metro.co.uk: ‘There are so many different components, much like in the first series. These people were my neighbours and friends, I wanted to protect them a bit, I didn’t want to put them through having to relive that specific trauma so that I could turn it into art.’

He was aware that in the particular community he was writing about, the stories were ‘pushed down and repressed’, and people didn’t talk about them.

But James was simultaneously aware of the ‘value’ in drama, and wanted to find a way to ’empathetically and kindly work through this very difficult stuff’.

He went on: ‘So in a similar way [with the first series], it’s not based on one or two or three specific characters.

‘It’s like a hybrid of lots of experiences that the community went through in the early noughties in particular, in the shattering of days, transposed into my characters as vessels.

The drama is inspired by real-life events though the characters are fictionalised (Picture: BBC/House Productions/Sam Taylor)

‘So hopefully in that way, we’re slightly making sure that people don’t have to go through it again.

‘And that also slightly liberates me as a writer to be able to tell my own version of that story through the characters I want to tell it through.’

Speaking to Metro.co.uk and other press, he added: ‘There’s three, four, five even real-life stories that we’ve amalgamated and turned into a hybrid real-fictionalised drama.’

Though the series was inspired by the Nottinghamshire community, other aspects including tensions with police and one scene in particular seemed to reflect real life.

In the first series, James followed the ‘toxic relationship with the police’ that evolved from the miners’ strike, with the six-part drama airing around the same time as Sarah Everard’s murder and the policing of Black Lives Matter.

Season two further explores the divide between police and the community (Picture: BBC/House Productions/Matt Squire)

‘It was just a complete breakdown in people’s faith in that institution. I think that unfortunately, it has only gotten worse since then,’ he said.

‘I think that unfortunately, it only got worse since then, and I don’t know whether the new government will change that dialogue, but it feels like we are in conversation about that social contract with the police, and what is a healthy version of that.’

He added: ‘It’s not every single individual, their job is incredibly hard but something has gone wrong.

‘Something has gone wrong institutionally and I think even the Met Police have acknowledged that something has completely gone wrong in the structure of how that’s organized.’

Where was Sherwood filmed?

Like season one, Sherwood was filmed in and around Nottingham, though set in Ashfield, where James grew up in the 1990s and early 2000s.

When the first season launched, he told press: ‘I was surprisingly moved to see… all those shots of the community that you see, that’s when we filmed in Annesley and Newton and to see that on the BBC, to the BBC I am incredibly grateful for this opportunity.

‘Coming up, you’ve got highlights that include Newton train station so get ready for that. Newstead Abbey, we did almost a whole episode in Newton abbey, and lots of places.’

Due to disruption amid the Covid pandemic, James also explained at the time that multiple scenes were shot elsewhere, including in Manchester, Blackpool and parts of Yorkshire. 

When does Sherwood season 2 begin?

The first episode of the second season of Sherwood airs tonight, Sunday, at 9pm on BBC One and iPlayer. The second episode follows tomorrow night, on Monday, with new episodes premiering on Sunday and Monday nights across three weeks.

The second series delves further into the rivalries and past of The Sparrows (Picture: BBC/House Productions/Matt Squire)

Joining returning actors such as David Morrissey, Lesley Manville and Lorraine Ashbourne are the likes of David Harewood, Monica Dolan, and Sharlene Whyte.

Speaking about the upcoming second series, James told us: ‘I always really thought there was way more to do. Obviously the first series is a self-contained story, the killers get caught… but certainly, like with The Sparrows, I wanted to do so much more with them and it would have felt like such a waste to not continue their life.

‘As those conversations developed, I already knew the world I wanted to put them through and I think there are some characters when you’re returning a series where it feels quite artificial and false to keep putting them through an ever escalating series of improbable events because how much could that happen to one person?

‘But I think with the Sparrow family it felt like they’d only been teased to the audience and we knew they were really popular from audiences and there was a lot of unresolved stuff in terms of Daphne’s past, and I had this idea about expanding the family and changing it.’

Sherwood merges the community tensions of the modern world with the legacy of the past (Picture: BBC/House Productions/Sam Taylor)

James added: ‘Normally people watch something and say, “don’t return back,” and this time in Sherwood, they did.

‘So yeah, that was a new challenge, a new skill for me to have to return characters, return a series, keep the story going, and I loved it.’

He went on: ‘It just felt like the world of Sherwood, the world I grew up in, the Red Wall, it felt like there were many more stories to tell, new stories with existing characters, and the joy of bringing in entirely new characters that we’ve not met before.’

‘There are sadly lots of things that have happened in Nottinghamshire over the past couple of decades, which felt like it would be worth interrogating in the same way that we did in the first series, but always about community, always about the legacy of the past, and how the present is always in dialogue with the past, and why these communities sometimes feel quite trapped in that heritage, that inheritance. It felt really hopefully fruitful enough to return,’ James elsewhere said.

Sherwood series two launches at 9pm on Sunday, August 25, on BBC iPlayer and BBC One, with new episodes premiering on Sunday and Monday nights across three weeks.

Got a story?

If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.