'I tried to show the pain Ann went through'

SHERIDAN Smith has left viewers in tears with her latest role portraying Teesside's Ann Ming in ITV's new drama I Fought the Law.

- By POPPY KENNEDY, ANITA MARKOFF

The four-part series, which began broadcasting on Sunday evening, tells the devastating true story of Mrs Ming - the woman who changed an 800-year-old law in her battle for justice following the murder of her daughter Julie Hogg.

In November 1989 Julie was declared a missing person after Mrs Ming found her Billingham home empty and uncharacteristically tidy. Cleveland Police initially treated the case as a missing persons investigation, but Mrs Ming knew it was unlike her daughter to simply disappear and not to keep in touch.

Now Smith - who has previously portrayed real-life characters in critically praised dramas such as The C Word, The Moorside, Four Lives, Mrs Biggs and Cilla - is being called one of the best British actors in existence for her role in this show.

She gives viewers an insight into what Ann may have endured from the moment Julie disappeared until the conclusion of her 15-year fight to abolish the ancient British double jeopardy rule that was keeping her daughter's killer out of jail.