-Badge- of HONOUR

David Oyelowo stars as extraordinary real-life lawman Bass Reeves

- ELAINE REILLY

NEW WESTERN
Lawmen: Bass Reeves
From Sun 5 November, Paramount+

He might not be as well known as fellow lawmen Wyatt Earp or Doc Holliday, but Bass Reeves was a force to be reckoned with in the badlands of the Wild West.

In 1875, former slave-turned-farmer Reeves was recruited to become a Deputy US Marshal for the Western District of Arkansas. A sharpshooter who could speak several Native American languages, he went on to become a formidable law enforcer, arresting more than 3,000 outlaws during his career.

This week, in Paramount+’s Lawmen: Bass Reeves – the first stand- alone series of an anthology about historic Wild West figures – British actor David Oyelowo takes up the reins to tell the untold true story of the first Black Marshal west of the Mississippi River.