‘Sherwood’: BBC Sets Season 2 Director As Lesley Manville & David Morrissey Return For Story Set In Present Day
EXCLUSIVE: James Graham’s BBC drama Sherwood has set three-time BAFTA nominee Clio Barnard as its Season 2 director, as Lesley Manville and David Morrissey confirm they will reprise their roles in a story that will move forward to the present day.
Barnard, who has been BAFTA nominated for Ali & Ava, The Selfish Giant and The Arbor, is lead director and EP on Season 2, which begins filming this summer. The director, who replaces Lewis Arnold and Ben A. Williams, will oversee a season “navigating the devastating effect of two crimes on the community” in Nottinghamshire, told through a modern-day lens. She most recently directed Tom Hiddleston and Claire Danes in Apple TV+ drama The Essex Serpent.
Deadline can reveal that the new story being penned by Graham will be brought forward to the present day. Season 1, which is nominated for three BAFTA TV Awards at this Sunday’s ceremony, was set around 2014 and included flashbacks to the 1984 miners’ strike.
Manville and Morrisey will reprise their roles as Julie Jackson and Detective Sergeant Ian St Clair, with further casting announcements and plot details coming in due course. Other Season 1 cast included Robert Glenister, Joanne Froggatt and Claire Rushbrook, the latter of whom was directed by Barnard opposite Sherwood star Adeel Akhtar in British indie romance story Ali & Ava.
Sherwood was a huge hit for the BBC when it aired last summer, entertaining nearly 10M viewers for some episodes and being recommissioned for a second season as soon as it ended. It is up against Bad Sisters, The Responder and Somewhere Boy in the Drama Series category at this weekend’s BAFTAs, while Akhtar and Manville are nominated for Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress respectively.
Sherwood Season 2 will be produced by House Productions for BBC One. Graham has written all six episodes and will be an executive producer on the series. Barnard is lead director and EP, and the producer is Kate Ogborn (Life After Life). Juliette Howell, Tessa Ross and Harriet Spencer are executive producers for House Productions and Jo McClellan for the BBC. BBC Studios, which owns House Productions, is the international distributor of both series.