Screenwriter heads home for new TV crime drama
MURDER STORY ‘SHERWOOD’ IS SET IN NOTTS MINING VILLAGE WHERE PLAYWRIGHT GREW UP
THE award-winning writer behind Quiz and Brexit: The Uncivil War will be drawing on his own experiences of growing up in Nottinghamshire in a new TV crime drama.
Called Sherwood, the series will be set in the Notts mining village where James Graham grew up and blends real and fictional events. Filming will begin later this year. 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.
Swuspicion is rife and the tragic murders threaten to inflame historic divisions sparked during the miners’ strike that tore families apart three decades before.
To solve the murders, police inspectors Ian St Clair, from the local constabulary, and Kevin Salisbury, from the Met, must reunite and bury a rivalry that stretches back to 1984, in an attempt to heal wounds, and catch a killer.
James’s latest collaboration is with House Productions, with whom he made the Emmy and Bafta-nominated Brexit: The Uncivil War, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Dominic Cummings.
By his own admission, “the scruffy kid from Mansfield”, James said: “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.”
Juliette Howell and Tessa Ross, executive producers for House Productions, said: “James has written an extraordinarily powerful drama, which has immense heart, wit and humanity – and, as ever with his writing, it’s a pertinent piece for our times.”
Piers Wenger, director of BBC Drama, said: “In blending real and fictional events, James has created a penetrating, heartfelt and purposeful thriller which exposes the tensions and fault lines at the heart of modern Britain. Sherwood is set to be an exceptional series by one of our greatest dramatists and we are proud to be bringing it to BBC One.”
The critically-acclaimed playwright and screenwriter wrote Quiz, a mini-series starrring Matthew Macfadyen and Michael Sheen, about the “Coughing Major” scandal on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, and opened Finding Neverland on Broadway with Gary Barlow. In October, his lockdown play Bubble, starring Pearl Mackie and Jessica Raine, had its world premiere at Nottingham Playhouse.
His first job, 15 years ago, was working on the stage door at Nottingham’s Royal Centre.