Anna Friel says she adores Liverpool after filming Jimmy McGovern’s drama Unforgivable here

Jimmy McGovern’s hard-hitting new BBC drama Unforgivable is about to air later this month with Anna Friel among its stellar cast.

And for the actress who first made her name as Beth Jordache in Brookside, filming for Unforgivable meant a very happy return to Liverpool.

Anna was in her late teens when she appeared in the C4 soap, spending two years between 1993 and 1995 on Brookside Close and at the centre of some of its biggest storylines including the infamous body under the patio.

Unforgivable brought her to the city to film again, this time in the role of mother-of-two Anna Mitchell, whose family has been devastated after her brother Joe was imprisoned for abusing his own nephew, her son Tom.

Anna stars alongside Anna Maxwell Martin, Bobby Schofield and David Threlfall in the drama which is made by LA Productions and wasn’t just shot in Liverpool but is also set here.

The actress, who won an Emmy for her portrayal of the title character in the ITV/Netflix mystery drama series Marcella, admits it was a joy to be back.

“I absolutely love Liverpool,” she says. “I’m a huge fan of Liverpool and Liverpudlians. Jimmy and Colin (McKeown, the executive producer) took me to a football match which was incredible. 

“You just bathe yourself in the world and the culture of Liverpool. I have such fond memories and I’d love to work in Liverpool again, I adore it. Every time I reunite with Jimmy, I reunite with Liverpool and it’s an honour.”

For Anna, now 49, being able to work again with writer Jimmy McGovern was one of the big attractions of the project.

“This is the third time I’ve worked with Jimmy and I have nothing but admiration and respect,” she says.

“There’s never a wasted word in the script. Every single word is important and matters and is used with impact and power. When I read the script, I was like “Oh God, I don’t know how I feel, is she being too hard on Joe? Should there be forgiveness?” 

“You look at it from all aspects, especially after finding out what’s happened to him in court. Her character doesn’t want to listen to it and doesn’t really believe him. Hopefully it allows the audience to put themselves in the character’s shoes and ask themselves what they would do. 

“That’s the art of a very clever writer. It becomes a talking piece. Especially because all of his dramas are always very much grounded and cemented in reality. Jimmy’s world is always a tangible and believable world that a lot of us can relate to. 

“The drama asks big questions we’re asking an audience to follow because, as an actress, it’s complex. I think that that’s a form of genius, the smartest people I know have the best questions. You’re not just talking about something superficial.”

With her character at the centre of a harrowing moral dilemma, Anna found herself with a lot of long speeches in her script.

“I like to deliver things at pace so I learned them back to front. I printed them off in A5 and stuck all my dialogue around the bathroom when I was in Liverpool so I could keep reading it again and again and again,” she reveals.

Even more challenging than learning the dialogue was nailing the Liverpool accent, Anna adds.

“I hope I did all right with that. Everyone else who was playing Scouse was Scouse, so I was like, I don’t want to let the side down!”

Unforgivable is on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer from 9pm Thursday July 24.

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