No, BBC crime drama Sherwood isn’t a lesbian re-telling of Robin Hood
Ria Zmitrowicz will play a queer Sheriff of Nottingham in BBC’s Sherwood. (BBC/House Productions/Sam Taylor)
The BBC’s BAFTA-winning crime drama Sherwood is back for season two this week, and the introduction of a new queer character already has some internet users throwing around misinformation.
The first season of the six-part, British police drama was inspired in part by the murders of trade unionist Keith Frogson and newlywed Chanel Taylor, who were killed in separate slayings in 2004 in Nottinghamshire mining town Ashfield, with the show opening with the murder of union activist Gary Jackson (Alun Armstrong).
Set in 2014, Sherwood also featured flashbacks to the 1984-85 miners’ strike, with the fatal crimes in the show being linked back to the bitter coal industry dispute. Stars including Lesley Manville, David Morrissey and Robert Glenister teamed up to explore the impact of the strike on the community, and tell the story of Gary and his involvement with local drug dealing family, the Sparrows.
Now, the series is back for its second turn, set in the present day and introducing a brand new family who become entangled with the Sparrows and their dodgy ways, leaving them “entering a complex web of local gangs, old rivalries, revenge, and betrayal,” according to the official BBC synopsis.
One of the new characters introduced this time around is the Sheriff of Nottingham, played by Three Girls’ actress Ria Zmitrowicz, who is ardently campaigning against the introduction of a new coal mine in the area.
Ahead of Sherwood season two premiering on BBC One later this week, the show’s writer James Graham has revealed that the Sheriff will be “young, queer” in order to give the season a “modern” edge.
However, some confused internet dwellers have taken the Sheriff of Nottingham role way out of context, believing – either by mistake or wilful ignorance – that Sherwood is trying to re-tell Robin Hood through a queer lens.
While the Sheriff of Nottingham is very much a character in classic English folklore tale Robin Hood, it’s also a very real position that exists in the county to this day, with Cllr Liaqat Ali currently holding the title.
Speaking to the BBC recently, Graham explained: “Whenever I tell people we still have a Sheriff of Nottingham they don’t believe it.
“I feel like mythology and folklore [were] a big part of the first series, the stories that we carry forward through generations or even just the associations that we make [with] certain titles are so important in general.”
Therefore, making Sherwood’s Sheriff of Nottingham queer has absolutely nothing to do with queering Robin Hood.
Writing on X/Twitter in a since deleted post, TalkTV host Kevin O’Sullivan described the alleged queering of Robin Hood as “woeful wokery”.
“In the BBC’s new Robin Hood series Sherwood, the Sheriff of Nottingham will be a lesbian. Apparently, this is to ‘modernise’ the famous old story. Britain’s ludicrous state broadcaster… where sanity goes to die,” he wrote.
Yet Sherwood’s writer Graham leapt in to correct the false information after it started swirling on social media.
“Sherwood is a drama set in the modern day. It is nothing to do with the old story of Robin Hood,” he wrote.
“The role of Sheriff is a real civic position in Nottingham taken up by rotating councillors. It has been occupied by women several times.”
“Who cares,” O’Sullivan quipped in response, seemingly unwitting to admit his mistake.
Yet Graham wasn’t ready to let the TV host spread falsehoods about his show.
“It’s only that you got angry at something that isn’t happening, that’s all (I’m the writer). It’s not an elite ‘woke-ing’ up of Robin Hood’s story. It’s the 2nd series of a political-crime drama set in the majority working-class part of the red wall I’m from. So we can all breathe.”
Sherwood series 2 will land on BBC iPlayer and BBC One from Sunday 25 August at 9pm BST.
New episodes will premiere on Sunday and Monday nights for three weeks.
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