It’s a return to his Nottinghamshire youth for writer James Graham (pictured) as Sherwood investigates murders in a fractured community

James Graham, will be drawing on his experiences of growing up in post-industrial Nottinghamshire for his latest collaboration with House Productions, with whom he made Emmy and BAFTA-nominated Brexit: The Uncivil War.

Inspired in part by real events, James has created a brand-new fictional crime drama, Sherwood, set in the Nottinghamshire mining village where he grew up. The contemporary six-part drama for BBC One sees two shocking and unexpected murders shatter an already fractured community leading to one of the largest manhunts in British history. Suspicion is rife and the murders threaten to inflame historic divisions sparked during the Miners’ Strike that tore families apart three decades before. To solve the murders, local police inspector Ian St Clair and Kevin Salisbury from the Met, must bury a rivalry stretching back to 1984.

James Graham says:

“It means the world to have this opportunity to bring the voices of a community I grew up in to BBC One. So much is spoken about the divisions and difficulties in these ‘Red Wall’ towns, but they’re not always understood. I feel so honoured to be able to tell a fictionalised story about a very real trauma, but with the humour and heart and resilience of the people I know and love there.”

Sherwood is one of several dramas from House Productions, planned for production in 2021, which also includes the recently announced Life After Life, an adaptation of the Kate Atkinson bestseller also for BBC One and Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle for Netflix; an adaptation of Stuart Turton’s Costa award-winning, bestselling novel

No word on any casting yet and filming is due to start in Nottinghamshire later in 2021. You can read the full press released here.