Sheerwood: BBC drama returns with David Morrissey, Lesley Manville and new cast member Monica Dolan

Sherwood was one of the best-loved dramas of the year, and as Graham and his talented ensemble cast return for a second series, it’s clear there’s plenty more where that came from. Set in the present day, series two of Sherwood introduces two new families that find themselves entangled with the Sparrows, a local criminal family, while the newly appointed Sheriff of Nottingham is fighting against a proposed new coal mine that could bring much-needed jobs to the area but also drags up memories of the legacy gripping the community.

Filmed in and around the city of Nottingham, the cast includes returning stars such as David Morrissey, Lesley Manville and Lorraine Ashbourne, along with newcomers including Mr Bates vs The Post Office star Monica Dolan, David Harewood, Robert Lindsay and Sharlene Whyte.

“It felt like the stories in the first series were big… It was inspired by the largest manhunt to ever take place at the time, across Sherwood Forest, with all these different police forces, but it was also quite a local story about these few people in these few streets, the streets I grew up in. I guess it felt natural, then, to go slightly bigger, to the city of Nottingham, and the urban area, the estates around there… a different kind of community outside of the mining villages,” says Graham, who also wrote the play Dear England and drama series Quiz among other political productions for stage and screen.

Following on from series one’s story of “the miners’ strike trauma”, Graham explains that series two taps into “another Nottinghamshire trauma, which was the days of ‘Shottingham’ and the gun violence, which felt like an epidemic at the time, and no one really knew why it was happening or where it was going to end”.

For Lorraine Ashbourne’s character Daphne, part of the infamous Sparrow family, “there’s no turning back” in series two.

“(It’s) a really interesting journey for Daphne, because in the first series she was pretty low key, kept herself to herself, and was able to hide, basically. She’d been hiding all of her adult life, but was able to keep a lid on everything,” says the 63-year-old Bridgerton and I Hate Suzie actress.

“And series two, it’s like opening Pandora’s box. She’s on the run now, there’s no turning back. She’s up against the wall… You just can’t imagine what she goes through.”

“It’s been brilliant to play,” Asbourne adds.

“We get to play with guns. We get to do stunts, for God’s sake! That’s been really exciting.”

Meanwhile, David Morrissey’s Ian St Clair has left the police and is working as part of the local council’s violence reduction unit, bringing together social care, housing, mental health, prison and the police.

“So his ambition at the start of the season is that he will act as a conduit between all those social services that are out there to help people, but make sure there’s a continuity around all that care,” explains The Walking Dead actor David Morrissey, 60.

This is pertinent, Morrissey adds, because “one of the issues that resonates a lot is around a breakdown of social services and the cracks that young people – particularly young men – can fall down. Particularly in regard to gang culture”.

“I think a lot of the other themes explore the dissociation between talk and action for the rejuvenation and investment into local communities,” he says.

“Broken promises and superficial political rhetoric which have let down people and their communities for too long.”

Joining Sherwood this series is Monica Dolan as Ann Branson, a woman whose family runs a drug cartel in Ashfield.

Fresh off the back of hugely influential ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office, Dolan knows all too well how significant drama can be in creating conversations and expanding the public’s perception of socio-political issues.

“I think it’s very important, and one of drama’s jobs is to remind or show an audience what people’s options are and how their options are different depending on their circumstances and what they’ve been offered in life,” says Dolan, 55.

“And I think what this drama does, very comprehensively, is cut right through society, so you see how people’s decisions high up impact on everyone else’s decisions.

“I suppose for me, playing Anne, one of the fun things is that she seems to be able to impact people very high up and at the bottom. That’s quite enjoyable.

“But yeah, I think lots of the drama that I admire really is about showing what people’s options are, and also that they can’t necessarily make choices that they can’t see, that they haven’t been given…

“I just think drama helps us to understand ourselves.”

Morrissey agrees that dramas like Sherwood offer audiences an insight into the intricacies of British society, but he adds that Graham’s approach to political drama is a hopeful one.

“(James Graham) presents a world that is recognisable to Britain today but presented by characters that we can get to know and have empathy for,” says Morrissey.

“We don’t particularly like all of them or what they do but he gives you the reasons around why people have turned out the way they have. So it’s very much a mirror up to our society.

“But I also feel that James is someone who has a lot of hope in him as well. He’s someone who presents a world in all its darkness and brokenness, but he also presents a world inside there which is solution-based, and is about love and community and caring.”

Sherwood series two starts at 9pm on Sunday on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.