BBC drama Sherwood follows two shocking unrelated murders that shatter a Nottinghamshire mining village still reckoning with the strikes in the 1980s, in a thrilling drama inspired by a true story.
Quiz creator James Graham saw his latest TV series hit screens earlier this week to rave reviews, but the chilling tale plotted out over six episodes is inspired by two real-life tragic murders in the county in 2004.
With an all-star cast including David Morrissey, Lesley Manville, Joanne Froggatt and Robert Glenister as well as testimonies of those affected by the real murders, Graham has created a fictional story based on the murders and the divided community around them.
The separate 2004 murders shocked the community, after Robert Boyer killed former miner Keith Frogson and Terry Rodgers murdered his daughter Chanel Taylor the same month.
Although the two murders were not connected in any way, both killers fled into woodland near Annesley Woodhouse in Nottinghamshire, remaining at large for weeks.
The murders triggered a police manhunt which is depicted in the new BBC show as the tragic killings threaten to inflame historic divisions sparked during the miners' strike three decades before.
Former miner and father-of-three Frogson, 62, was a prominent member of the National Union of Miners and had been heavily involved in the strike of 1984.
Prior to his death, he had clashed with Boyer, who was a member of the rival Union of Democratic Mineworkers.
The two men were believed to have had a heated argument about the 1984 strike, which Boyer had worked through.
It later emerged, however, that Boyer had been suffering delusions that led him to believe Frogson was attempting to destroy his home. It's unknown how or why he became fixated on Frogson specifically.
On the night of July 19, Boyer waited for Frogson to return from the pub, shot him with a crossbow and then attacked him with a Samurai sword, which it later emerged Boyer had bought for £150 online.
Frogson was found dead on his doorstep following the brutal attack.
Sherwood has largely changed the details of the horrific crimes, with all the character’s names altered from those of their real-life inspired counterparts.
A title card before the first episode of the show read: “This story was initially inspired by two killings which took place in the Nottinghamshire mining community where the author grew up.
“For the purposes of dramatisation, the characters and events have been fictionalised.”
Alun Armstrong plays former miner Gary Jackson, a character apparently inspired by Keith Frogson, who stopped working during the strike, while many of his colleagues crossed the picket line.
In one scene, Gary is seen walking back from the local miners’ club after a few pints and a narrowly avoided run-in with a fellow punter, when he is suddenly struck down as an arrow flies straight into his heart.
In the BBC drama, the crossbow murder, drawing on Frogson’s murder at the hands of Boyer, triggers the return of police chief Ian St Clair, played by David Morrissey, to his home town to investigate the crime.
The drama is penned by James Graham, who grew up in a "red wall" town in the same area and who. has said, at a press Q&A attended by RadioTimes.com, that he wanted to "try and give voice" to his hometown in writing Sherwood.
Sherwood focuses on the real manhunts of Robert Boyer and Terry Rodgers, but also explores the police response to the incidents, unearthing local tensions that date back to the miner strikes.
Elsewhere, the six-parter delves into the Met's deployment of so-called 'spy-cops': undercover officers who weren't infiltrating terrorist organisations, but real-life communities.
Sherwood continues tonight on BBC One at 9pm.
