TV Pick of the Week: Sherwood - review by Yvette Huddleston

Much of the authenticity derived from Graham’s direct connection with his material. He grew up near Mansfield at the heart of Nottinghamshire’s coalfields and witnessed first-hand the fallout from the 1984-5 miners strike and the subsequent closure of the pits that left communities bereft and divided. That first series focussed on the sad legacy of the strike which led to two brutal murders, based on real-life killings that took place in the area in 2004.

Here, in Graham’s equally excellent follow-up, the focus is on one of the inevitable consequences of a breakdown in social cohesion and seismic shifts in a community’s identity. Something fills the void and, as archive news footage in the opening episode reminds us, Nottingham went through a period of shocking gang-related violence in the 1990s. It is that legacy which spills out into the narrative this time round.

David Morrissey returns as Ian St Clair, now retired from the police force and working in crime prevention, who is drawn back in to investigate when a young man is shot dead after an altercation at the local ice rink. The motive is initially unclear but seems to be related to drug dealing. One of the witnesses to the killing is young Ronan Sparrow (Bill Jones) who is in the wrong place at the wrong time. It turns out that his family and the parents of the victim – Anne and Roy Branson (Monica Dolan and Stephen Dillane) – have long-standing links. Both crime families, the Sparrows and Bransons were adversaries in the past but a fragile truce has since prevailed.

The perpetrator of the crime Ryan Bottomley (Oliver Huntingdon) is quickly arrested and after a terrifying revenge attack is carried out against his family – his stepmother Pam (Sharlene Whyte) and sister Stephie (Bethany Asher) who now live with Pam’s brother Dennis (David Harewood) – they are moved to a safe house. But how safe are they?

All this is set against the (hugely ironic) proposed reopening of a local coalmine. A state of the nation drama very much for our times, this is shaping up to be every bit as memorable and compelling as the original.