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Wales Online
Wales Online
Lifestyle
Stephanie Colderick

Sherwood: Is new BBC drama based on a true story?

New BBC thriller Sherwood follows the tragic and unexpected murders that threaten to shatter an already fractured community. The drama will be set in Nottinghamshire and stars David Morrissey and Joanne Froggatt.

Sherwood will begin on BBC One on Monday, June 13, at 9pm. At the heart of Sherwood lies two shocking and unexpected killings that sparked 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. But is the drama based on a true story?

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Sherwood is based on a true story about events that happened in the hometown of James Graham, the Creator and Executive Producer of Sherwood. The show is not a literal adaptation and the characters are fictional but the drama has been inspired by real events in the community.

James spoke about what it was like to represent his community, he said: "Coming from this community, places like this rarely get screen time. I don't think there's ever been a drama set in the part of the world in which I grew up. So to be able to put those voices and those people, and their sense of humour and wit, and that experience, and the conditions that underpin that community on screen, is a huge privilege."

The show is based off true events (BBC/House Productions/Matt Squire)

The real events that took place involved two murders in 2004. Robert Boyer murdered former miner Keith Frogson and Terry Rodgers who killed his daughter Chanel Huthwaite.

Both men fled to the same local woods, near the village of Annesley Woodhouse, after the murders. The murders were brutal as Robert shot Keith with a crossbow, hacked him to death with a sword, and set fire to his house with Keith's daughter and son-in-law still inside.

Terry was living with his daughter Chanel when he shot her four times, just weeks after her wedding. After fleeing to the woods both killers remained at large for weeks.

The search for Terry involved a team of more than 450 officers from forces across the UK, cost more than £1.5m and led to a desperate community appeal to find him with "wanted" posters pasted to lamp-posts and in shop windows.

Terry eluded police for nearly three weeks after constructing a shelter in the woods and was finally found on August 16, the day after Boyer had been discovered.

Terry was never sentenced as after receiving his trial date for March 2006 he went on hunger strike and died in February 2006. He never revealed why he killed Chanel.

Robert was given an indefinite hospital order has he had mental health illnesses and believed Keith was trying to hurt him. Sherwood will begin on BBC One on Monday, June, 13, at 9pm.

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