While the first season dealt with two murders and the current fallout from the miners’ strikes of the 1980s, the second season continues to shed light on pressing contemporary issues such as gangs, local government and social services.
But is this brand new second season based on a true story? Read on to find out.
Is Sherwood season 2 based on a true story?
The first season of Sherwood was based on true events. In 2004, a former mining community in Nottinghamshire was rocked by two gruesome murders that led to a major manhunt involving police officers from across the country.
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While the first season was inspired by these two real-life murders that took place in Nottinghamshire, Season 2 of Sherwood is not based on a true story.
Sherwood’s second season is completely fictionalized And of the second season, series creator and writer James Graham said: “It’s essentially the same formula, inspired by the area I grew up in, the East Midlands. But I’ve taken more artistic license with this series and it’s even more fictionalized than the first.”
“I have drawn inspiration from many, many events in Nottinghamshire over different time periods to create a brand new fictional story.”
He continued: “I hope it will resonate because it is inspired by times when the area faced very high levels of crime and violence, including when Nottingham was called ‘Shottingham’ and other dark times.”
“The fact that it is more of a work of fiction gave me the freedom to develop the characters we know from the first series and I hope people enjoy it as a drama but can also see the impact of such industrial, political and socio-economic factors.”
Although the second season raises timely issues and questions, no character or storyline is based on a specific person or case.
On creating a story for Season 2, Graham also said, “It’s my very first recurring series. I’ve only ever completed my stories in a single series and never had to come back, so this was something new but not really challenging.”
“It was a privilege and a joy because I really like these characters, especially because they and this show mean so much to me, because they are inspired by my hometown and their voice – even though they are fictional – is in some ways the voice of family and friends.”
The true story of Sherwood Season 1 explained
Fans of the series know that the first season of “Sherwood” was also a fictional narrative, but it was closely based on the true events that tore the local community apart.
The first season of Sherwood was inspired by two real-life manhunts that took place simultaneously in Nottingham in 2004, while also shedding light on the fractured local community.
The drama’s writer is James Graham, who grew up in a ‘Red Wall’ town in the same area and who, at a press Q&A attended by RadioTimes.com to mark the release of the first series, said he wanted to “try and give a voice to his home town” by writing Sherwood.
The first season focused on the real-life manhunt for Robert Boyer, who killed former miner Keith Frogson before fleeing into the local woods, and secondly on Terry Rodgers, who killed his daughter Chanel and also fled into the same woods.
The first season also examined the Met’s response to the incidents and brought to light local tensions dating back to the miners’ strikes of the 1980s.
Elsewhere, the six-part series looks at the British police’s use of so-called “spy cops”: undercover investigators who infiltrated not terrorist organizations but real communities.
David Morrissey, who plays Ian St. Clair in the drama, previously spoke in an interview with Radio Times Magazinet at the time of the release of Season 1.
When asked how he thought the police were portrayed in the drama, he said: “It’s important to me to play the individual, but when they start uncovering things about ‘spy cops’, Ian is as baffled as everyone else.”
He added: “We have seen covert operations within criminal and terrorist organisations in dramas such as Line of Duty.”
“But the idea that there were undercover agents in legal organizations who were listening in on conversations, passing on information and sometimes having relationships with people without telling them who they really were is outrageous. And that is something we need to look at closely, here and now.”
The second series of Sherwood begins with a bank holiday double feature on Sunday 25 August and Monday 26 August at 9pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
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