Robert Glenister on starring in new 'whydunnit' drama series Sherwood

Virgin Radio

13 Jun 2022, 10:13

Actor Robert Glenister joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky to talk about starring in a brand new six part drama, Sherwood.

Robert plays Detective Inspector Kevin Salisbury in the new series, which begins tonight at 9pm on BBC One. He told Chris: “It’s inspired by two killings that happened in a small Nottinghamshire mining village back in 2004, and both perpetrators disappeared into Sherwood Forest, couldn’t be found.” 

The actor continued: “Nottinghamshire Police couldn’t find them. [They] enlisted the help of other police forces, including the Met, and the Met came up and it rekindled all those feelings going back to 1984, during the miners strike, when there was huge division within communities, huge conflict between local communities and the police. 

“So it’s a story based around those communities, and what happened, and how riven they were during that time, and it rekindles terrible recrimination and betrayal within families, within communities. It’s not a whodunnit? It's a sort of whydunnit?”

The show was written by James Graham (who also wrote ITV’s Quiz) and its lead director is Lewis Arnold. When speaking about the director, Robert said: “Lewis had done Des with David Tennant, and he’s done Time with Sean Bean and Stephen Graham. He’s extraordinary really. He’s one of those directors who has a vision, and I think he just gets the best out of everybody."

Sherwood also stars the likes of David Morrissey, Joanne Froggatt, Alun Armstrong, Lesley Manville and Lorraine Ashbourne. “There are so many people in it, and everybody gets a fair crack of the whip,” Robert told Chris.

Morrissey plays the Detective Superintendent of the Nottinghamshire police force, and of his relationship with his own character, Robert said: “There is a history between David’s character and my character, so when they come together again there’s a real sort of animosity and tension.” 

Robert has been on British TV since 1980, and the shows he has worked on include Only Fools and Horses. “It was great. We did it in Brighton, stood in for Peckham, because it was such a hit then that they couldn't film in Peckham, or London, because it just became impossible,” the actor said.

“It was called Mother Nature’s son, this episode, and I played a friend of Rodney’s called Myles. They basically set up a spa, spring-type water thing in an allotment. It was a hosepipe coming out of the grass, basically, and they flogged it to this gullible chump called Myles!”

Fans can see Robert treading the boards in London soon, as he is set to appear in The Jamie Lloyd Company’s Covid-delayed production of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull at the Harold Pinter Theatre. The play will also star Game of Thrones’ Emilia Clarke. Speaking about the production, Robert said: “Jamie does this work where he takes these classic plays and he turns them on their head and has a different take on them. I think, to a degree, if you’re going to do these plays that people have done time after time after time, then do something different with them.”

Before that, though, Sherwood premieres this evening (June 13th) on BBC One. “We’re all quite excited about it, I’ve seen the first two,” Robert told Chris. “My family is doubly-excited about it, because there is a lot of flashbacks involved, so we have younger people playing younger versions of us, and the person playing the younger version of me is my son!”

Sherwood begins tonight at 9pm on BBC One.

For more great interviews listen to  The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky, weekdays from 6:30am on Virgin Radio, or  catch up on-demand here.