I couldn't see myself anymore: How Sheridan Smith lost herself in stunning ITV role

The primal cry of terror and grief sends shivers down the spine. Actress Sheridan Smith, who is slumped on the floor as Ann Ming, the mother who campaigned to change the double jeopardy law after her daughter Julie Hogg was murdered, has just opened the panelling of her missing daughter's bathroom - and what she's discovered behind it doesn't bear thinking about.

The harrowing moment is captured in ITV's forthcoming four-part drama, I Fought The Law, which tells of Ann's 15-year journey for justice from Teesside to Westminster and beyond. Ann, the plain-spoken but fiercely intelligent nurse played by Smith to a tee, rose to a tragic sort of national fame in the early 2000s when her campaign to reform the centuries-old legislation from which her daughter's killer Billy Dunlop had benefited from was finally successful.

Violent local alcoholic Dunlop killed Julie Hogg in 1989 and hid the 22-year-old pizza delivery girl's body in her bathroom in Stockton-on-Tees. Policing blunders meant that Julie's body was missed by forensics teams who searched the property so it was Mrs Ming who made the horrifying discovery early the following year.

What followed was an astonishing legal and personal saga for her and her family. Acquitted of the killing twice at trial, lifelong criminal Dunlop later confessed and even bragged about the murder, knowing he could not be retried again for the same offence.

Thence followed a decades-long campaign to reform the double jeopardy rule and get justice for Julie; it was not until 2003 that Tony Blair's government agreed to the changes and only in 2006 did Dunlop plead guilty to the murder ahead of a retrial. In doing so, he became the first person in Britain to be convicted of the same crime they had previously been acquitted of.

Dunlop was jailed for life and Mrs Ming was awarded an MBE; her campaign to remove the perversities of double jeopardy gave hope to dozens more families who were in a similar situation to hers.

But her fight is a story that is surely ripe for retelling, not least because she and her grandson, Julie's son Kevin, continue to fight for victims of crime and for reform of the parole system, which is often as traumatic for victims of crime as the prosecution itself. Only months ago, their steely campaign, which the Express was proud to support, saw Dunlop's bid to be moved to an open prison defeated - until, that is, the process repeats itself in two years.

Early indications are that I Fought The Law is an expert retelling of Ann's story, preserving her humanity, dignity and, above all, fierce love for her slain daughter. Smith is present in almost every shot and it is doubly rewarding to know that Ann herself considered the down-to-earth star as the perfect choice to play her.

Speaking exclusively to the Express at a press preview of the ITV drama, Ann reveals: "I've watched every role she's ever played, and I thought, well, if anybody can portray me, she'd be the one. So I was pleased. I'm comfortable with her, and she's comfortable with me so I think that makes a difference...there's nothing I would change about the drama side, because she's done a really good job."

Indeed, the bond between Ann and Sheridan now goes beyond merely the professional: they've struck up a touching friendship, and both were reduced to tears when discussing their mutual admiration.

Asked if watching the show revealed anything new to her, Ann reveals that it made her realise how her fight has "consumed her life".

"It's only when you reflect and watch it, and see all the years gone past... and I've just relived it all again," she says.

In terms of coping with years of letter-writing, meetings with MPs and lawyers, as well as media appearances to keep up the pressure on successive governments, Ann admitted she "really doesn't know how I did it".

She explains: I didn't look after myself, I just lived in a state of being hyper all the time. But when you've got the passion inside you because of the injustice - and I think anybody else would do it if they've been put in that position - you have to carry on."

Smith recalls being bowled over by Ann's story when she received the script. Scarcely believing it could be true, she began to research and was left thinking, "How has this story not been told yet?"

"I was just really honored that Ann okayed me to play her," says Sheridan. "So I jumped at the chance. But it was what Ann came up against. It was one thing after another. It's relentless. And the strength it took for Ann to keep fighting...I mean, I did nine weeks shooting it, and I was a mess. So to have lived through that, and to be here and to achieve what she did, I'm absolutely in awe of her."

I Fought The Law was Sheridan's first role as a mum after giving birth to a boy in 2020.

"I was emotionally attached to the whole thing very early on," she says. "And then when we met, I couldn't stop bugging her."

Joking about the emotional impact that shooting over nine weeks had on Smith, Ann rejoinders: "Try 35 years!"

"I was a shaking mess", Smith explains. "So for Ann to have gone through all that is just remarkable." Turning to her, she adds: "I mean, your strength, I wish I had your strength in real life. You're just remarkable. And the fact you changed this 800-year-old law and this change paved the way for all those other families...I just think she's incredible."

Returning to how she stayed positive and totally unawed when bringing her campaign in front of Lords and QCs, Ann, a retired nurse, jokes: "I think working with surgeons in operating theaters for 30 years, when they were tin gods to us nurses, put me in good stead."

Ann believes her legacy, particularly through this drama adaptation, will "inspire other people if they think that there's something's wrong and they want to put it right to keep on trying".

She adds: "And when I look back, it didn't look like a massive thing to me, because to me, it was the difference between getting justice for our daughter and not getting any.

"Any victim's family will tell you when you get an acquittal, the family is left in a state of limbo because you've got no conviction, so no closure. I'd met a lot of the families who had acquittals, I think it was 35 around the country at the time, and because I met a lot and knew what they felt like, and I think I had the biggest mouth! So I'm glad I did it."

The show's writer, Jamie Crichton, whose television writing credits include All Creatures Great and Small, Granchester, Ripley Street and Holby Street, likens Ann's life to a "superhero story".

"It's an inspiring story... 75% of the story is Ann's courage and her strength. I promise that you will come out [at the end] a bit uplifted. I know that sounds incredible, but that's what appealed to me most about it. It's a story of a triumph over adversity, against the odds."

Smith, who has also battled her own private demons, says the experience of playing Ann was so moving and consuming that at times that "I looked and I couldn't see myself anymore. I just saw Ann".

The actor used yoga and meditation to clear her head after the day's shooting. But while the performance was emotionally bruising, it is clearly one of the finest of her career.

Ann Ming's story is one for the ages, and thanks to the special bond between the actress and the woman she plays, so is the dramatisation.

• I Fought The Law begins on ITV on August 31, and will be available to stream afterwards. The programme will be followed by I Fought The Law: The Ann Ming Story documentary with Sheridan Smith providing narration