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Nottingham Post
Nottingham Post
National
Peter Hennessy

BBC One Sherwood: Nottinghamshire mining village remembers two murders which inspired new drama

Back in 2004, a small mining village in Nottinghamshire found itself in a surreal sea of police, press and search helicopters. Annesley Woodhouse became the centre of the nation's attention after two grisly and shocking murders led to the biggest manhunt ever undertaken by Nottinghamshire Police.

In July of that year, Robert Boyer had shot ex-miner Keith 'Froggy' Frogson with a crossbow on his doorstep, before hacking him to death with a sword and setting fire to his home - with his victim's daughter and her husband still inside. Then later that month, Terry Rodgers was living in his daughter Chanel's home in Huthwaite when he shot her four times, just weeks after her wedding.

The two crimes, though completely separate, will be forever intrinsically linked - as the two killers fled into woodland near Annesley Woodhouse, both remaining at large for weeks while police tried to hunt them down. These events have inspired a new BBC drama set to be released this summer called Sherwood - starring David Morrissey, Robert Glenister and Lesley Manville - which although fictional, will be inspired in part by these events and set in the Nottinghamshire mining village where executive producer James Graham grew up.

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Now, 18 years on, the people who live in the village have not forgotten about the murders.

Mick Lee, 60, lived in Annesley Woodhouse at the time of the killings but has since moved away from the area. He said: "I know Froggs, he was my friend. He used to live round the corner. I knew that the pair of them [Boyer and Mr Frogson] didn't get on. I didn't know Boyer as well - I knew of him, that was about it.

"He used to walk around with rabbits and things and take them to woods. He was a bit strange. I used to see him around but when I heard that Froggy died, I would never have thought it was Boyer that would have done something like that to him until I was told that was what happened.

"It was impossible not to keep up with it because it was on the news every single day. There was police everywhere at the time, too - everywhere you looked. I think I will watch the show when it comes out."

Paul Lally, 63, says he knew Keith Frogson well before his death, as did many others in the former mining village. He said: "I heard about what happened that morning and I think like a lot of other people I was in complete disbelief. I'd never even heard of the lad [Boyer] but I heard that he was waiting for him when he came back from the pub.

"Then you heard about the guy from Huthwaite who was also on the run, and he was found in the woodland just over there [pointing forward] - which was in a different part than where Boyer was found."

Paul Lally, 63, pictured in Annesley Woodhouse (Nottinghamshire Live)

Mr Lally claimed: "Boyer had bunkered himself down in this shelter he had made by the golf club and one day he came out, went on his phone and the police got him straight away - they picked up his phone signal."

Whether this is the truth or hearsay may never be clear, but what is known is that Boyer was found on August 15 after three weeks of evading capture from the small army of officers frantically searching for him. One day after Boyer was found, so was Terry Rodgers - bringing an end to the search which is estimated to have cost £1.5m and involved hundreds of officers.

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The search involved overhead support from helicopters deploying heat-detection equipment and 30 dog teams. One resident told Nottinghamshire Live it felt like Annesley Woodhouse "had its own airforce" at the time, such was the activity seen overhead everyday above the village.

One woman, who wished to remain anonymous, said: "I remember all of the posters - they were everywhere. We all knew what both of them looked like because it was all over the news. Honestly, I don't think you'll ever see anything like that happen again around here.

"I know Froggy still has a lot of family here. I just remember hearing that the man that did it had used a crossbow, which was pretty unbelievable. I didn't actually know they were doing any sort of show about it. I can't say I'm surprised, though. There was a lot of press here at the time."

Terry Rodgers with daughter Chanel Taylor on her wedding day (Nottinghamshire Police / PA)

Rodgers, 55, admitted the manslaughter of his newly-wed daughter Chanel on the grounds of diminished responsibility, but denied her murder. However, prosecutors refused to accept his plea, and a murder trial was set for March 6, 2006, but he went on hunger strike and died in February, 2006. He never disclosed why he killed his daughter.

Meanwhile Boyer, 42, pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Keith Frogson and at Nottingham Crown Court was given an indefinite hospital order. The court heard that Boyer had mental health problems and wrongly believed that Mr Frogson was out to get him.

What can you expect from the BBC show?

At the heart of Sherwood lie two killings that shatter an already fractured community and spark a massive manhunt.

As suspicion and antipathy build - both between lifelong neighbours and towards the police forces who descend on the town - the tragic killings threaten to inflame historic divisions sparked during the miners' strike three decades before.

Sherwood will be a contemporary crime drama that explores for the first time the controversial deployment of so-called ‘spycops’ around Britain, and a distinctly human story of a community forced to re-examine the terrible events of decades ago, for which it still bears the scars.

It is also a powerfully resonant and timely examination of the frayed social and political fabric of modern day, post-Brexit Britain. It's due to air on Monday, June 13.

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