I couldn't see myself anymore - I just saw Ann

Sheridan Smith takes on her toughest role to date as Ann Ming, the extraordinary campaigner who overturned the 800-year-old double jeopardy law to bring her daughter's killer to justice

- By Josh White

HE PRIMAL cry of terror and grief sends shivers down the spine. Actress Sheridan Smith, who is slumped on the floor as Ann Ming, the mother who campaigned to change the double jeopardy law after her daughter Julie Hogg was murdered, has just opened the panelling of her missing daughter's bathroom and what she's discovered behind it doesn't bear thinking about.

and Sheridan now goes beyond merely the professional: they've struck up a touching friendship, and both are reduced to tears when discussing their mutual admiration.

ASKED if watching the show revealed anything new to her, Ann reveals that it made her realise how her fight has “consumed her life”.

“It’s only when you reflect and watch it, and see all the years gone past... and I’ve just relived it all again,” she says.

In terms of coping with years of letter-writing and meetings with MPs and lawyers, as well as media appearances to keep up the pressure on successive governments, Ann admits she “really doesn’t know how I did it”.

“I didn’t look after myself, I just lived in a state of being hyperactive all the time,” she explains. “But when you've got the passion inside you because of the injustice and I think anybody else would do it if they’ve been put in that position - you have to carry on.”