‘It’s about trust and where you put it…’
The first series of Sherwood was vital television not just for its depiction of the miners’ strike but also because of its incredible ensemble cast and smart writing from series creator James Graham. Series two sees Graham and the cast return to Nottingham with a few new faces thrown in for good measure…
Rather than the straightforward murder mystery of the first season, season two is ostensibly about the potential reopening of the coal mines by unscrupulous businessman Franklin Warner (Robert Lindsay). In reality, however, there are several disparate storylines here and new characters, so much so that Graham struggles to keep all the plates spinning throughout the six-episode run.
As well as Lindsay, series two adds Monica Dolan, David Harewood, Ria Zmitrowicz and Stephen Dillane, and while all of them make an impact, it’s Dolan who steals the show, playing a character who couldn’t be more different from her similarly acclaimed turn in ITV’s smash hit Mr Bates vs The Post Office. She snarls and snaps her way through this one as a grieving mother and the scenes she shares with Lorraine Ashbourne simmer and pop with mutual disdain and paranoia.
While this sophomore effort has true moments of greatness, it also tries to pack too much in. David Morrissey was one of the MVPs of the first series but he isn’t given enough to do here, something that is true of many of the characters from the original run. It is possible for something to be too ambitious and there is a nagging feeling that Sherwood occasionally flies too close to the sun at times during this second series.
Even when convoluted and labyrinthine, Sherwood is still stellar television and while series two is a step down from what preceded it, this is still essential viewing.