I feel quite blessed to be playing the mother of all this wonderful talent...

MARION McMULLEN FINDS OUT WHAT DREW ANNA FRIEL TO JIMMY McGOVERN'S EXPLOSIVE NEW DRAMA UNFORGIVABLE, WHICH EXPLORES THE DEVASTATING AFTERMATH OF AN ACT OF ABUSE

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Anna turned 49 this month and says: “I'm at an age where I'm constantly playing a plethora of mothers, which is so fascinating and interesting being a mother myself and seeing the different aspects and different types of mothering. The most important job we'll have to do is being a mother.

“Anna is on the brink and she’s coping the best she can. We never get to see her fight her corner, she doesn’t play victim and say, ‘I've lost my husband, I’ve lost my mum.”

“She just makes it very clear that you're never going to be forgiven, you’ve destroyed everything. I think she’s just disgusted.”

Anna also enjoyed working with the young actors on the drama.

“Working on this show - and being a child actress myself, I've worked since I was 13, so 35 years - I am so impressed by the young talent, it’s quite extraordinary,” she says. “I feel quite blessed to be playing the mother of all this wonderful talent.

“They're so hard working and brilliant. Austin is delightful, he’s on a roll. Head down and works really hard. And that’s difficult, to be that age and play a character who has been abused. It’s very tricky.”

Anna achieved early TV fame playing Beth Jordache in Channel 4 soap Brookside which was also set in Liverpool, and Unforgivable gave her the chance to speak with a Liverpudlian accent.