In tonight’s episode of Sherwood, Scott Rowley continued to terrorise the residents of Ashfield as the police failed to capture Fred and Cathy’s crossbow-wielding son.
While officers were busy searching the surrounding forests, he slipped into Julie Jackson’s home, just across the way from his own house, where he had a mooch around before changing the name on her grandson’s games console to Robbie Platt.
When Noah alerted Julie to what had happened, her face instantly dropped.
Where had she come across that name? And how does Robbie Platt impact the story moving forwards?
![""]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2022/06/Gary-Jackson-Sherwood-714c74c.jpg?quality=90&crop=17px%2C105px%2C4260px%2C2838px&resize=620%2C413" "\"\"")
Who is Robbie Platt?
On hearing that name, Julie immediately rushed upstairs and pulled out a box filled with photographs, documents and newspaper clippings from under her bed, all of which had been gathered by her husband Gary. Julie dug out his notebook and ruffled through its pages until she arrived at the name Robbie Platt alongside the words ‘Stolen identities’ and ‘Who?’.
Before Gary was murdered, he had been carrying out his own investigation into the identity of an undercover police officer who had arrived in the region during the miners’ strike where they would collect information on those involved in the industrial action, such as Gary, and feed it back to the authorities.
Unlike the rest of the officers who had been drafted in, that mystery individual remained and still remains in the village to this day.
Speaking to RadioTimes.com, Sherwood creator James Graham said: “As we move through the series, we begin to dig more into this mystery of undercover policing and the rumour that there’s a ‘spycop’ who was planted in the village during the 1980s miners strike, but stayed and is living their fictional identity.
“Somebody the audience have met already is going to be revealed as someone who was playing a part and has been playing a part for 40 years, and we’ll try and explore the reasons why somebody might do that.
“Robbie Platt is the fictitious name of one of the spies who came up and policed the strike, and over the next two episodes that spirals out of control quite quickly.”
The region still bears the scars of those tragic and destabilising events that unfolded in the ’80s, with families and friendships ripped apart and unable to recover. But with fresh tragedy to contend with and the promise of more following the inevitable unveiling of the “spycop”, any ounce of hope is fast disappearing.
Sherwood continues on Tuesday 21st June at 9pm on BBC One. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide to see what’s on tonight.
The latest issue of Radio Times magazine is on sale now – subscribe now and get the next 12 issues for only £1. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the Radio Times podcast with Jane Garvey.