Cast of Sherwood: Meet The Popular Faces Behind BBC’s Drama Series

Look, I’m going to be honest here. When I first learned about the BBC’s Sherwood back in 2022, I assumed it’d be just another tired retread of Robin Hood. You know the routine: tights, bows, stealing from the rich. Wrong. This is not about men in Lincoln green prancing around Nottingham Forest.

Sherwood is not your typical British crime drama, either. James Graham made it, and it’s about a former mining community still carrying the scars from the 1980s miners’ strike. The cast of Sherwood brings this world to life.

David Morrissey As DCS Ian St Clair

David Morrissey is DCS Ian St Clair, a detective who returns to his roots. And, does Morrissey know his stuff. You may recognise him from The Walking Dead. Here, he is exhausted, divided and working to hold together a community that’s barely hanging on.

What’s good about Morrissey in this is he underplays it. St Clair is no heroic copper swooping in. He’s knackered. Wrestling with his own past. Attempting to do right in a place where right and wrong were muddled long ago. In series two, which aired in August 2024, he has taken on the role of the “area’s anti-violence tsar”. Yeah, you read that correctly.

Lesley Manville As Julie Jackson

Then there’s Lesley Manville as Julie Jackson. If you don’t know Manville, you’ve been living under a rock. The woman‘s a legend. She’s won BAFTAs. Been Oscar-nominated. But in Sherwood, she strips all that glamour away.

Julie Jackson is a widow. Her husband, Gary, gets murdered, and that kicks off series one. Manville plays her with this quiet devastation that’s gutting. You feel every bit of her loss. Her anger. She wants answers. She comes back for series two, and watching her deal with fresh turmoil whilst still carrying old wounds? Something else.

The Sparrow Family

The cast of Sherwood wouldn’t work without the Sparrows. This family’s a right mess, innit? Daphne Sparrow, the matriarch who rules with an iron fist, is performed by Lorraine Ashbourne.

Philip Jackson is her husband, Mickey. Their sons, Rory and Ronan, get caught up in violence that never stops.

Ashbourne brings proper menace to Daphne. She’s not some villain. She’s a mother guarding her family the best way she knows how. Even when that means treading in territory most of us would consider unacceptable. The Sparrows are what happens when trauma gets passed down through generations.

New People In Series Two

When the cast of Sherwood season 2 showed up, things got intense. David Harewood joined as Denis Bottomley. You’ve seen Harewood in Homeland or The Night Manager. Here, he’s dealing with personal tragedy in a community that’s torn everyone apart.

Robert Lindsay rocks up as Franklin Warner. Lindsay’s been in everything, from My Family to Hornblower. Monica Dolan plays Ann Branson, a character so confident and scary that Dolan herself said Ann has “complete self-confidence,” which is rare for women on telly. Stephen Dillane plays her husband, Roy. Yes, Stannis from Game of Thrones.

There’s also Sharlene Whyte, Aisling Loftus, Robert Emms, Michael Balogun, Christine Bottomley, Oliver Huntingdon, and loads more talented actors.

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Why It Actually Works

Here’s the thing. These people don’t feel like actors. They feel like real people you might see at Tesco or arguing outside the chippy. Graham’s writing gives them material that’s grounded in real history. Real pain. Real divisions that still exist in communities across Britain.

Series two dropped us into the aftermath of the “Shottingham” gang wars in Nottinghamshire. It’s not pretty. It’s uncomfortable. But that’s why it works. These actors commit fully to characters who’ve been shaped by poverty and being forgotten.

Series Three Is Coming

Good news if you’re a fan. The BBC confirmed series three back in September 2024. Graham’s continuing to tell stories from his home county of Nottinghamshire. Honestly, with this cast and this level of storytelling, I’m proper excited.

The interesting bit about Sherwood is it manages to be both specific and bigger than that. Yeah, it’s about miners’ strikes and gang violence. But it’s also about communities anywhere that have been left behind. Forgotten. The actors get this. You can see it.

The Robin Hood Connection

Now, I can very well imagine what some of you are thinking. Sherwood Forest, Robin Hood, all that. And yes, the shadow of Robin Hood hangs over the series. One reviewer mentioned how the suspected murderer hides in “the very forest made famous by Robin Hood.” It’s there in the background, this legendary outlaw riding these same trails where modern crimes occur.

If you’re into the Robin Hood genre, you probably remember the cast of Robin of Sherwood, that 1980s show with Michael Praed and Jason Connery. That show, with its Clannad soundtrack, captured imaginations back then. This Sherwood? It’s the opposite. No magic. No adventure. Just the grim reality of what happens when communities break apart.

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Why You Should Watch

I remember settling in to watch the first episode. Half expecting to give up after twenty minutes. Instead, I watched the entire first series in two days. The performances grabbed me. Morrissey’s haunted look. Manville’s quiet fury. The Sparrows’ messy desperation. It all felt true.

The cast of Sherwood season 2 kept that quality when it came out in August 2024. Critics loved it again, though some viewers felt the second run didn’t quite match series one. That happens with telly, doesn’t it? Lightning’s hard to catch twice.

But whether you prefer series one or two, there’s no denying the talent. These actors bring something raw to their roles. They make you care about people you might not even like. They make you understand why people do things even when you disagree. That’s proper acting.

Where To Watch

If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s all on BBC iPlayer in the UK and BritBox in the States. Pour yourself a cuppa, settle in, and prepare to be gripped. Just don’t expect Robin Hood and his Merry Men. This forest’s got different stories. And this cast tells them with skill and honesty.

Will series three live up to it? Who knows? But with this lot and Graham writing, I’m betting it’ll be worth watching.