ITV Angela Black: Who is Joanne Froggatt, Yorkshire’s award winning actor who played Anna Bates in Downton Abbey?

The new show Angela Black will be on ITV every Sunday at 9pm and has already been rated 6.6 stars out of 10 on the IMDb website.

What is Angela Black about?

The show will follow the seemingly idealistic life of a suburban wife and mother of two who will navigate the dark realities behind the idyllic image she puts out into the world.

Behind closed doors, it is revealed that Angela is a victim of domestic abuse; Michiel Huisman stars as Angela’s controlling and abusive husband.

In the first episode, Angela is approached by a detective called Ed, played by Samuel Adewunmi, who spills her husband’s secrets in an attempt to help her escape her relationship.

The show will touch on the devastating realities and effects of domestic violence.

Who is Joanne Froggatt? Where have I seen her before?

Joanne was born and raised in the small village of Littlebeck in North Yorkshire, near Whitby. Her parents owned a corner shop and then began a rare-breed sheep farm; according to Joanne, her childhood setting is akin to the backdrop of Emily Bronte’s classic novel Wuthering Heights.

When she was a child, Joanne joined a drama class in Scarborough and then left her family home when she was 13 to attend the Redroofs Theatre School in Maidenhead, Berkshire.

In 1996, she made her TV debut in the popular ITV drama The Bill and soon after, she landed the role of teenage mother Zoe Tattersall in Coronation Street, which she played until 1998.

A year later she appeared in the first four episodes of prison drama Bad Girls, where she played teenage mother Rachel Hicks.

In 2003, Joanne went on to star as the leading role in the controversial one-off drama Daniell Cable: Eyewitness which was based on the true story of a teenage girl who saw the murder of her boyfriend in a road rage attack. She met the woman who she was portraying in the show, who commended her for her role. Joanne earned a BAFTA TV Award nomination for Best Single Drama.

Over the next few years she also appeared on ITV drama See No Evil: The Moors Murders, Joanne Lees: Murder in the Outback, portrayed a peasant, Kate, in the third season of the BBC TV show Robin Hood and another BBC drama Moving On.

From the show’s conception in 2010, she played the recurring role of Anna Bates in Downton Abbey, a lady’s maid to Lady Mary Crawley, for which she received two Emmy nominations in 2012 and 2014. She also won the Golden Globe award for Best supporting Actress in a Series, Mini-series, or TV Movie for the role.

In 2015, Joanne also played the role of Wendy in the new Bob the Builder series, voicing her in the UK and US versions.

In 2016 she starred in the ITV mini-series Dark Angel, based on the true story of Victorian poisoner Mary Ann Colton and a year later she appeared as the lead role of schoolteacher Laura Neilson in the six-part thriller mini-series Liar on ITV.