Sherwood, series two: ‘stuffed to the gills with brilliant performances’

Fans of “Sherwood” could be forgiven for wondering if writer James Graham could possibly conjure its “noirish magic for a second time”, said Carol Midgley in The Times.

A crime drama set in a Nottinghamshire village in the noughties, it was a brilliant depiction of a community still riven by the toxic schisms created by the miners’ strikes in the 1980s; and by the end, there seemed no need for a sequel. Yet now we have a second series, and I am happy to report that it is superb: Graham’s “talent for understanding the human condition” and “creating complex, believable characters is every bit as potent as last time”.