Who Is the Man at the End of 'Sherwood' Season 2, Episode 3?
We’re now officially halfway through the second outing of James Graham’s brilliant BBC drama Sherwood. And while half of the season two cast are new faces (here’s looking at the incredible Monica Dolan as Ann Branson, strong contender for 2024’s most terrifying TV villain) there are also returning characters, most notably Ian St Clair (David Morrissey) , Julie Jackson (Lesley Manville) and Daphne Sparrow (Lorraine Ashbourne).
What's more, at the end of episode three of the new series another key character returns. Ryan (Oliver Huntingdon) – newly banged up for the murder of Nicky Branson – is shown walking into another cell, while a prisoner does push-ups on the floor. Who is the mystery inmate, and what is his link to the first series?
Who’s the convict?
That’ll be Scott Rowley, played by Adam Hugill. In series one of the BAFTA-winning show, he portrayed a serial killer who terrorised a Nottinghamshire village with a crossbow and arrow.
He first shot Gary Jackson (Alun Armstrong), the trade unionist, in the head, before firing off arrows at train driver Andy Fisher (Adeel Akhtar). Then he went on the run, hiding out in Sherwood Forest with £15,000 of his dad’s redundancy money, before committed more crossbow killings and injuries, hitting two golfers and a peacock.
Scott was finally arrested by the police and admitted to the murders – he claimed he was wrongly sent to jail for claiming unemployment payments, and was disillusioned with his life and the people around him.
Why’s he making a return in this series?
Money, of course. At the end of series one, we learned that Scott had buried all his cash somewhere within the forest, presumably to dig up again once he’d got out of prison.
Earlier in the third episode, we saw Ryan on his (illegal) phone to one of his gang members, telling him to move into his mum’s house in Ashfield – and worryingly, to look after his sister Stephie for him – and start up the drugs operations from there. “You got a pot at the end of the rainbow or something?” the lad asks him. “We need cash.”
And who’s a guy with cash? £15,000 cash? Scott, who’s handily just a few prison cells over from Ryan, who tries to sell the idea to him. The question is: will he go for it and reveal where his Sherwood Forest treasure is buried?
Is Scott Rowley based on a real life person?
Yes. In 2004, a man called Robert Boyer killed a man called Keith Frogson with a crossbow and samurai sword. One of the UK’s biggest manhunts began, and Boyer hid in Sherwood Forest for two weeks, before returning to Frogson’s house to set fire to it.
Boyer pleaded guilty to the crime and was at first sent to jail, but had severe mental health issues, and was later given an indefinite hospital order.
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