Sheridan Smith admitted she was left “a shaking mess” after taking on her latest role in ITV’s harrowing drama based on a true story, I Fought The Law.
The programme, set for an Autumn release, tells the story of Ann Ming’s legal battle which followed the horrific murder of her daughter, Julie Hogg.
Smith takes on the role of Ann, who campaigned tirelessly to abolish the UK’s 800-year-old Double Jeopardy Law after her daughter’s killer was wrongfully acquitted before confessing to the crime.
Ming, who is now in her 70s, acted as a consultant for the show, which is based on her book For the Love of Julie.
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Speaking at a recent premiere for the drama, Sheridan, 44, admitted: “I was a mess by the end” as she explained how she tried to step into Ming’s frame of mind.
Sharing the close friendship she’s since formed with Smith, she stated they are now “friends for life”.
“It was my first role as a mum, I was emotionally attached to the whole thig very early on,” the actress recalled.
Ming joked: “She was shaking, I thought she was going to collapse.”
“It was emotionally taxing for nine weeks and by the end of it I was a mess, I was a shaking mess,” Smith admitted
She went on to explain how she tried to embody how Ming would have been feeling throughout the years-long ordeal, sharing: “I get mad at myself if I don’t feel the actual pain or trauma.
“I constantly had Ann in my ears, like I could hear her talking and stuff. I just wanted to make her proud and give her story the justice it deserves.
“I kept thinking about Ann, I kept watching her and thinking about how she must have felt. It was important to me. It was only a tiny part of what Ann felt.”
Ming was full of praise for Smith as she shared: “When they talked about doing the drama and suggested Sheridan Smith, I’m not just saying it because she’s sat here with me, I’m just saying little truth…
“Nobody could have played it better than Sheridan. You know, it was a harrowing story, but the reason I did campaign to change the Double Jeopardy law is because it was a common sense approach.
“Never mind that it was an 800 year old law. I mean, that didn’t matter to me.
“If there’s been a proven wrongful conviction, I would be the first to say that person should be freed.
“But when it’s been a proven wrongful acquittal, such as our case, when a man confessed in court he murdered our daughter but because of an 800-year-old law he could only be charged with perjury, that was not right.
“So to me, I took a common sense approach, approaching the right people at the right time and luckily, it changed and we got the conviction in 2006.”
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I Fought The Law is set to air on ITV in the autumn.