PICK OF TODAY’S TV

SHERWOOD, 9PM, BBC1

REVISITING the town where he grew up, James Graham — who also wrote the brilliant ITV drama Quiz, about the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? cheating scandal — has crafted a riveting six-parter about murder and a manhunt in a community still riven by the miners’ strike, when choices were made and sides taken that would fracture families for ever. David Morrissey (pictured) stars as the policeman — himself estranged from the rest of his mining family — who tries to find a link between two killings in the present day, while Robert Glenister is his rival from the Met Police, who is still haunted by past violence. The supporting cast is packed with top British acting talent, including Bridgerton’s Lorraine Ashbourne, Mum’s Lesley Manville, Poirot’s Philip Jackson and Downton’s Joanne Froggatt. Graham’s writing often has a political element — he was also behind Channel 4’s Brexit: The Uncivil War in 2019 — and the playwright has said he was moved to return to his Nottinghamshire roots partly because the area is one of the former Red Wall constituencies that turned to the Conservatives in 2019, and there are parallels to be exlored with the historic divisions that emerged back in the 1980s. Recent revelations about the undercover police spies also play into the plot. Above all, though, this is a cracking crime thriller.