English actress and singer Sheridan Smith has not only made a name for herself with the role of Ruth “Rudi” Smith in Gavin & Stacey, but also by portraying real-life people. In the TV drama Cilla, she played English singer, actress and TV host Cilla Black. The role won her the best drama performance honor at the National Television Awards and the best actress honor at the TV Choice Awards. And in the TV series Mrs Biggs, she portrayed Charmian Biggs, the wife of the famous train robber Ronnie Biggs, winning the BAFTA TV Award for best actress for her performance.
Now, Smith stars in ITV‘s four-part drama I Fought the Law as Ann Ming, an English woman whose 22-year-old daughter was murdered in 1989. After two unsuccessful trials, the defendant admitted to the murder. But the 800-year-old British double jeopardy law prevented him from further prosecution. After all, the double jeopardy rule prevented people from being tried twice for the same offense.
Ming reacted with 15 years of campaigning to change the law. Thanks to her efforts, the Criminal Justice Act 2003 created an exception, allowing an acquitted defendant to be tried a second time for a serious offense. That opened the way for a retrial and 2006 conviction in the case of Julie’s murder. The man was sentenced to a life term.
Jamie Crichton (All Creatures Great and Small, The Last Kingdom, Grantchester) wrote I Fought the Law, based on Ming’s book For the Love of Julie. Smith stars as Ming in the drama produced by Hera Pictures (What It Feels Like for a Girl, Mary & George, Hamnet), in association with All3Media International.
“The drama follows the tragic, moving and deeply inspiring journey of the Ming family after the murder,” highlights an ITV synopsis of the series. “In the wake of multiple police failings, Ann relentlessly pressures the authorities to uncover the truth and ensure the man responsible is brought to justice — despite initially seeming he will get away with murder.”
I Fought the Law launches on ITV and STV on Sunday, Aug. 31, with the series streaming on ITVX and STV Player, followed by a documentary about Ming’s historic campaign called I Fought the Law: The Ann Ming Story.
Star Smith and writer Crichton talked to THR about creating the drama series and the challenges it provided, working with Ming, and why it never mentions her daughter’s murderer by name.
“She’s not a very well-known name in this country, and yet she should be, and hopefully she will be,” Crichton said about Ming. “The same is true for the double jeopardy law. I think if you stopped someone on the street and said, ‘What’s double jeopardy,’ they probably wouldn’t know.”
He saw a documentary that moved him, though. “It was Ann’s story, and it was such an incredible story. I couldn’t believe I didn’t know it,” he recalled. “So, I took it to Liza Marshall at Hera, and thankfully, she loved it too.”
The question of who should portray Ming in the drama wasn’t really a question for the writer and producer. “We both said the same name,” Crichton told THR. “I feel everybody says, whenever you’re talking about actors, ‘Oh, they were at the top of our list.’ But genuinely, I had three names and said I’m going to start with the first one. And I said, Sheridan Smith. And Liza said: That’s exactly what I’m thinking. Perfect!”
Smith was quickly on board. “Liza gave me Jamie’s brilliant script, episode one, and I read it,” she told THR. “I had the same reaction that they had. ‘How do I not know this story?’ This is incredible. I was thrilled that they wanted me. And I’m very grateful that I got to portray Ann.”
Smith prepared for the role by researching online, watching the documentary, other material and Ming’s book.
“We only met once,” the star says about Ming. “I had watched her so much and studied her that I just started doing mannerisms and things. It was my friend who was on set who noticed it first. ‘You are walking differently.’ I was like: ‘What?’ And she said, ‘You’re doing this twitchy thing with your eye.’ No offense to Ann, but I just try to embody the role.”
Is it easier or harder to portray a real rather than a fictional person? “It is scarier playing a real person, especially someone like Ann, who’s changed this 800-year-old law,” Smith told THR. “I felt such responsibility to do her story justice, because she’s trusted these guys to tell her story. And at the end of the day, it’s her real life. It’s not just a TV show, it’s her life and her family, and it matters.”
That meant extra hard work to get things right. “So I put myself through the wringer and really tried to feel exactly how she would have felt,” the star explained. “I know I can’t, because I haven’t been through that trauma, but I would beat myself up if I didn’t make myself feel at least a fraction of what she went through. So it was quite a tough shoot, but it was amazing, and an amazing team.”
Sheridan Smith and Ann Ming
Courtesy of ITV
That includes a great costume and makeup department, Smith lauded the crew. “I couldn’t even see myself in the mirror,” she recalled. “It just wasn’t me, and I didn’t see where I was. So it was a magic shoot. I’m really pleased. And I hope Ann is pleased. We’ve done well, if Ann’s happy.”
Crichton offered that getting Smith to portray Ming was key. “It’s impossible to speak for Ann, but I don’t know whether she would have let us tell her story if we hadn’t said we got Sheridan Smith on board,” he told THR. “As soon as we said her name, she said that she absolutely adores her.”
How did he, as the writer, pick what parts of Ming’s extended campaign to focus on in the series? “It’s a big span of time, which means you must make editorial decisions, dramatic decisions,” he said. “Ultimately, it’s all about trying to get the emotional story right. Ann’s book is so powerful. It does so much of the work, if you like. When I started really feeling like this is going to work was when I made the decision to tell the whole story from Ann’s point of view.”
Explained Crichton: “So often, especially when you’re dealing with stories that have true crime elements, the story is told through the procedural point of view, from the detective’s point of view. So you’re always going to meet suspects who are being interviewed. I decided, even though it’s quite a challenge, quite tricky, to tell it all from Ann’s point of view as a mother. Obviously, what that means is you’re restricting yourself to a certain extent, you’re not able to see what you would think as an audience of as being the classic interesting scenes. For example, I knew I would have to have police come in and talk to Ann to catch her up” on the status of the case.
His worries vanished soon, though. “I first thought that’s going to be the worst story ever told. But actually it was really liberating, because it’s nothing you normally see,” Crichton said. “And the great thing is that you put Ann in every single scene, or 99 percent of the scenes. And once you make that decision, then it’s about the emotion, and about how you tell a story that conveys the appropriate emotional beats at the appropriate times.”
Being in so many scenes meant that Smith was constantly in action or getting ready for a scene. “I feel that I was going slightly nuts,” she recalled. “But it’s also a gift. I mean, Ann is constantly in a state of anxiety, and no one’s listening to her, and everyone is shutting doors in her face. And what’s brilliant about her story and Jamie’s scripts is that I could get myself panicked sometimes, because it’s just so hard to turn it off. It’s this hamster wheel, and you want to keep going.”
What was Ming’s reaction to what she saw in I Fought the Law? “I think she loved it. I think she really got a buzz,” said Crichton. Smith also had some fun in between all the dramatic scenes, including in a scene that shows Ming barging into a room. “There’s so much trauma in it, but those moments where a strength comes through are great,” the actress shared. “And it’s great fun to play that and have a real release and, after doing lots of crying and internalized emotion or angst, be able to really show how Ann flew in there.”
The murderer of Ming’s daughter never gets mentioned by name in the series, and that was a core choice Crichton made early on. “That was really important to me from day one, because this is Ann’s story,” he told THR. “It was always important to me that this is not about the killer. Not only is he not named, you never hear his name in any of the four episodes, but he’s not even in the credits. The actor who played him, Jack James Ryan, graciously agreed to this. This is not his story.”
Concluded the writer: “So often, especially when you’re watching true crime stories, they’re about the gruesomeness of the killer, and that’s where a fascination comes. That’s the intrigue of the macabre. And it feels so exploitative of some poor family’s grief and trauma to make a piece of entertainment. So, for me, it was just always important that this is not his story. This is Ann’s story. “
Smith also wrapped up with that in mind. “This is a story about a woman who sees something that’s unjust and has been around for 800 years,” she told THR. “She was so horrified, obviously, by the death of Julie, but she was also so determined that this was not right. The strength in her is amazing. She just kept fighting. It’s about this little working-class woman who takes on the establishment amd wins. And I do think that that’s such a powerful story.”
