University of Gloucestershire grad directs hit BBC drama series Sherwood

By Nicky Godding

21 June 2022

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The University of Gloucestershire is celebrating the news that one of its graduates directed BBC's latest hit drama, Sherwood.

Broadcast by the BBC, Sherwood is inspired partly by real events set in the Nottinghamshire mining village where the writer of the series, playwright James Graham, grew up.

Lewis Arnold, who graduated from the University with a first-class honours degree in Video Production, directed an array of British acting talent on the six-part series, including David Morrissey, Joanne Froggatt, Robert Glenister, Alun Armstrong, Terence Maynard and Adeel Akhtar.

Lewis, who has directed a string of hit drama series, said: “At the heart of Sherwood lie two shocking and unexpected killings that shatter an already fractured community and spark 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.

“Sherwood explores for the first time the controversial deployment of so-called ‘spy cops’ around Britain, and is a distinctly human story of a community forced to re-examine the terrible events of decades ago, for which it still bears the scars.”

Before working on Sherwood, Lewis directed Jimmy McGovern’s Time starring Sean Bean and Stephen Graham, which was nominated for six BAFTA awards. In 2020, Lewis directed and executive produced Des starring David Tennant that won the International Emmy Award for Best Performance by an Actor.

Lewis, who graduated from the university in 2007, regularly returns to the University’s School of Creative Industries as a guest lecturer on the BA (Hons) Film Production course.

“I love coming back into the university to teach and inspire the next wave of filmmakers alongside the brilliant existing tutors,” he said

“It was for the students at University of Gloucestershire that I created Directors Now - www.directorsnow.com - which has now been downloaded by thousands of aspiring filmmakers worldwide.”

By Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe.

After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts.

She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.