TV Pick of the Day: I Fought the Law - review by Yvette Huddleston
I Fought the Law ITVX, review by Yvette Huddleston
Sheridan Smith gives a characteristically committed and affecting performance in this powerful, sometimes gruelling drama based on a true story.
Smith plays Ann Ming whose daughter Julie Hogg was murdered in 1989 and the narrative follows Ann’s 17-year campaign to change England’s archaic double jeopardy law, preventing a person to be put on trial for the same offence twice, in order to finally bring Julie’s killer to justice. The perpetrator was eventually jailed for life in 2006.
The drama opens with Ann Ming (Smith) preparing to address the House of Lords. She is advised by the attorney general that she might need some notes to refer to as she will be speaking to some of the most revered and influential people in the country. She demurs – she has been waiting decades for this moment and she knows exactly what she wants to say. We then flashback to the start of what would be an incredibly long and difficult journey for Ming and her whole family.
A busy wife, mother and grandmother, nurse Ann Ming is close to all her adult children and is particularly supportive of Julie whose young son Kevin (Buddy Wignall-Ho) she often looks after when her daughter is working nights at a pizza takeaway. One evening Ann arrives to pick up Kevin and Julie tells her that she and her husband have decided to separate. He has already left to take up a job in London and she has an appearance in court the next day to file for an official separation. Ann is perplexed by the decision but supportive and leaves with Kevin having arranged with Julie that they would come back early in the morning to get her to her court appointment.
The following day when Ann and Kevin arrive, Julie doesn’t come to the door or answer the phone. Ann becomes concerned, calls her son and they break into the house; there is no sign of Julie. The police are called but won’t register Julie as a missing person as she is an adult. They suggest to Ann and her husband Charlie (Daniel York Loh) that she may have gone to London, even though they insist she would never leave her son. After pressure from Ann the police conduct a forensic search of the house, which apparently yields nothing. Nearly three months after her disappearance Julie’s body is found by Ann in the most distressing circumstances.