spinofflive
David Morrissey stars in Sherwood (Photo: TVNZ)
David Morrissey stars in Sherwood (Photo: TVNZ)

Pop CultureSeptember 2, 2024

Welcome back to one of the best dramas on television

David Morrissey stars in Sherwood (Photo: TVNZ)
David Morrissey stars in Sherwood (Photo: TVNZ)

The ‘just about perfect’ season one was a tough act to follow, but the new season of Sherwood pulls it off.

This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here.

When it comes to British drama, there’s no shortage of high quality, award-winning shows to choose from. Whether it’s Happy Valley, Broadchurch, Line of Duty, Peaky Blinders or Sherlock, these shows set the bar high by pulling in viewers around the world with their rich, complex characters, gripping storylines and intriguing twists. It’s TV you know won’t let you down, and two years ago, we added a new classic to the list: BBC drama Sherwood.

Created and written by James Graham (The Crown, Quiz, Brexit: The Uncommon War), the BAFTA-award winning first season of Sherwood was hailed by critics as the cleverest, most compelling show in years, and “just about perfect”. The show was inspired by two real murders in an ex-mining village in Nottinghamshire, England, where old resentments from the 1980s miners strikes simmered under the surface. Season one pulsed with a strong sense of time and place, as the search for a killer uncovered a working-class community still suffering from the decisions of its government decades earlier.

Michael Balogun and David Morrisey in a scene from Sherwood (Photo: TVNZ)

Now there’s another murder to solve in Sherwood, with season two premiering on TVNZ+ and TVNZ1 this Sunday. This time, the story was inspired by an era of fierce gun crime and gang violence that caused Nottingham to be nicknamed “Shottingham”. Some familiar characters return, including Detective Ian St Clair (David Morrisey), Daphne Sparrow (Lorraine Ashbourne) and Julie Jackson (the always brilliant Lesley Manville). There are also several new characters, played by experienced actors like Monica Dolan (Mr Bates and The Post Office), David Harewood (Homeland), and Robert Lindsay (My Family).

While season one of Sherwood felt gritty and steeped in political history, season two feels harsher and more contemporary. Detective St Clair has retired from policing, but when a murder threatens to reignite local gang tensions, he becomes involved in the case. The possibility of reopening the coal mines has the progressive new sheriff of Nottingham (The Power’s Ria Zmitrowicz) butting heads with a millionaire businessman (Lindsay). Then, of course, there’s the murder: a brutal, sudden affair that unites two well-known crime families in their quest for revenge.

Episode one sets out the many tangled strands of the story. Talk of a new mine hits a nerve with those who endured the strikes and closures under Thatcher, and who now live with the consequences of those decisions: unemployment, crime, societal breakdown. There’s more family secrets and complicated relationships to unravel. Although Sherwood is set on the other side of the world, it raises timely issues that will resonate here, like a government turning away from sustainable energy to mine fossil fuels, and families destroyed by crime and poverty.

Nottingham is famous for the story of Robin Hood, but Sherwood reminds us that outlaws still rule the city, many of them hiding in plain sight. Season one was a tough act to follow, but episode one of the new season reveals a richly layered piece of television that is a must-watch for British drama fans. Sherwood is a social and political drama as much as it is a murder mystery, one that takes the fractured mess of everyday society and holds a mirror up to it to ask: if this is what we have done to ourselves, where do we go from here?

Sherwood screens on TVNZ1 on Sunday at 8.30pm and streams on TVNZ+.

Keep going!
Celebrity Treasure Island is back, baby (Photos: TVNZ / Design: Tina Tiller)
Celebrity Treasure Island is back, baby (Photos: TVNZ / Design: Tina Tiller)

Pop CultureSeptember 2, 2024

The 10 most chaotic moments from the Celebrity Treasure Island teaser 

Celebrity Treasure Island is back, baby (Photos: TVNZ / Design: Tina Tiller)
Celebrity Treasure Island is back, baby (Photos: TVNZ / Design: Tina Tiller)

Tara Ward reacts to the new preview of the upcoming season of Celebrity Treasure Island.

Less than a week before Celebrity Treasure Island returns for its sixth glorious year, TVNZ have released a supertease of the season ahead. Against the stunning new backdrop of Te Whanganui-o-Hei in the Coromandel, 18 local celebrities are about to wash up on a beach of dreams, in the hope of solving an ancient family mystery and winning $100,000 for their chosen charity. And guess what? This season looks like an absolute doozy. 

The new supertease is a four-minute masterpiece filled with drama, action, tension and joy. It’s our first glimpse of Suzanne “Natural Glow ho” Paul, politician Carmel Sepuloni and broadcaster Duncan Garner all living on the same beach, and there’s no shortage of tears and chaos. But wait, there’s more. I’ve watched this supertease dozens of times, chewing over every delicious frame like a hungry celebrity hoovering down a hard-won McDonald’s chicken nugget combo, just to find 10 of the teaser’s most exciting moments. 

Are you not entertained, Aotearoa? Let’s dive into the drama. 

1) There’s a new co-host on the island

Build it, and Lance Savali will come. With last season’s co-host Jayden Daniels committed to an acting role elsewhere, two-time CTI castaway Lance Savali stepped into the breech, alongside host Bree Tomasel. The supertease is our first chance to see the former CTI rule-breaker in action, and Lance seems to have nailed the lurking part of the job, jumping out from behind rocks and popping up from under trees whenever he feels like it. He also seems to love a whistle, so what more do you need, New Zealand? 

2) Everyone is crying

People sobbing their way through CTI isn’t new (hi, Matty McLean), but this season it looks like the dam has broken, the seas have risen and every celebrity is being swept away in a river of emotion. If it’s not a weepy Janaye Henry, it’s Vinnie Woolston wiping tears away and sad cowboy Duncan Garner telling us he’s let people down. Maybe this is why there appears to be a bath at one of the camps? Is this how our celebs are supposed to conserve water?  

3) Give Michelle Langstone all the awards

Speaking of tears, Michelle Langstone sobbing to the camera cut me to the core, until she pulled back the mask to reveal she was only pretending. That’s acting, baby! Now we know how Alex Ryan felt on McLeod’s Daughters when Michelle Langstone lied to him and then cut up his dining table with a chainsaw. This magnificent performance is up there with Jodie Rimmer fake-spewing in the bushes to stay in the competition back in 2019, so bravo, five stars, see you at the Emmys. 

4) The weird rocks are back again

They’re not as big as the monolith or as shiny as the magical stones of Fiji, but there’s nothing more powerful on CTI than a big old chunk of stone. But why, and where, and how, and when? In the words of Millen Baird, “what does it all MEEEEAN, Cully?”

5) The challenges are as batshit as ever

Celebrities being human bowling balls in a giant game of skittles! Stars being pushed to their physical limits! Famous people calling for the medics! This season’s challenges look fiercer than usual, but I’m especially intrigued about Michelle Langstone being forced to pick up tiny jars on a tiny stage behind a tiny curtain. It’s yet another reminder that we are all just puppets in the twisted theatre of CTI’s heart. 

6) Suzanne Paul might be this season’s MVP

Nobody has turned up to CTI wearing a space-suit silver puffer jacket before, but then again, nobody else is Suzanne Paul. The infomercial queen first appeared on CTI back in 2003, and she knows exactly what she’s here to do this time: “make a good TV show”. She’s also here to take us on a journey of linguistic zingers, dropping “jiggery pokery”, “Natural Glow ho” and “but wait, there’s more” in a matter of seconds. But wait, there is more, because the teaser shows her holding the captain’s rākau kōrero? Oh luminous captain, my luminous captain.  

7) There’s a lot of tension

Well, well, well, it looks like the kids on school camp are misbehaving. “If you’re going to cheat, at least try and be subtle about it,” Bree Tomasel scolds, while Tamati Coffey tells everyone to “never trust a politician” and Michelle Langstone suggests Duncan Garner should go “down to the beach and have a think about your life”. Between the cheating, the shouting, the yelling and the tears – plus Bubbah’s admission that she’s never seen an episode of the show before – will this be the most chaotic season yet?  

8) The huts are a bit flash

Four walls to keep you dry? An old couch to lie around on? A dead possum under the hut, rather than inside it – what is this, the Hilton? Five stars, would stay again. 

9) This season is being compared to the cultural classics of all time

First, there’s Wairangi Koopu rasping “my precious” to a tiny clue in a tiny bottle, like he’s a camo-wearing Gollum in a budget Lord of the Rings spinoff. Then there’s Duncan Garner singing Shakespeare’s top of the pops rock ballad “Romeo and Juliet”, and JP Foliaki comparing the game to Harry Potter. Who said reality TV didn’t have substance? Not us, mates. 

10) The bath is the 19th cast member

Looks like a lot of important stuff goes down in that tub. Long live the bath, and long live CTI. 

Celebrity Treasure Island starts on Monday September 9 on TVNZ2 at 7.30pm and streams on TVNZ+.

But wait there's more!