Who is Robbie Platt? Sherwood boss explains development

When Noah alerted Julie to what had happened, her face dropped instantly.

Where had she come across that name? And how does Robbie Platt fit into this story?

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. That officer was there to collect information on those involved in the industrial action, such as Gary, and feed it back to the authorities.

But unlike the rest of the officers who had been drafted in, that mystery individual stayed behind 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."

In episode 4, DI Kevin Salisbury visited a man called Bill Raggett, a retired officer who had previously worked in special operations. Bill was on his last legs, weeks away from death.

He was one of the men depicted in an image Gary had clipped from a newspaper article with the headline: 'Miners' festival overshadowed by violence' – a night DCS Ian St Clair remembers well.

During Bill's exchange with Kevin, he explained that the real Robbie Platt was a "dead child from Peterborough" whose name he had borrowed for the purposes of his work. He also revealed that he was part of a group of five undercover officers nicknamed after the Romantic poets – Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Keats and Blake – who had legally spied on the village in the '80s.

When Kevin informed Bill that one of the other officers had remained in the community, he was astonished.

"Everyone came back," he said, refusing to believe what he'd just learned.

But then his expression shifted as old memories floated back to the fore: "I should have seen it. They were trouble from the start."

But Bill didn't disclose the identity of his former colleague – and he never will.

Kevin stepped outside to take a call and when he returned, Bill had killed himself. Initially, it looked like he was going to shoot Kevin, but instead he opted to take his own life.

Before his suicide, he sent a text to the other four 'spycops' which read: 'One of you has f**ked us.'

The region still bears the scars of the 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', hope for a brighter future is fast fading.

Sherwood continues on Monday 27th 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.