Latest news with #AnnaFriel
The Independent
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Anna Friel hopes harrowing drama ‘Unforgivable' sparks empathy in viewers
Anna Friel hopes viewers respond to Jimmy McGovern 's Unforgivable with "respect and kindness." The actor, 49, stars in the multi-award-winning screenwriter's new BBC drama, which centres around the Mitchell family who are dealing with the aftermath of an act of abuse perpetrated by a member of their own family and its extensive ripple effect. Speaking to The One Show on Monday (28 July), Friel detailed how her character, Anna, fit into the story and how she hoped viewers would respond to the drama. "It's a truthful, honest topic that we hope is talked about with respect and kindness and intelligence. "We don't have to necessarily go through something ourselves to find empathy and compassion for those that are going through such a thing."
SBS Australia
a day ago
- Entertainment
- SBS Australia
Top new series coming to SBS On Demand in August 2025
Series coming to SBS On Demand in July: The Shift - season 2 Sofie Gråbøl as Ella in The Shift. Credit: Henrik Ohsten In one of Denmark's busiest maternity wards, head of department Ella (Sofie Gråbøl) fights a daily battle to create the best possible conditions for both the expectant mothers and for her colleagues. But the midwives and the doctors are well worn-down, the department is understaffed and overburdened, and you cannot rush a woman in labour. Michael, the senior consultant, does not help matters along, as he has a budget to keep, the intern Vilhelm is being walked all over and the holistic midwife Tine is driving Ella insane. Together, the staff experience conflict and downfalls, traumas and triumphs, births and falling in love. One thing is for certain: No one, who passes through the maternity ward, leaves unchanged. The Shift S2-3 premieres Thursday 7 August on SBS On Demand. The Shift season 1 is now streaming. Marcella - seasons 1-3 Anna Friel as Marcella Backland in Marcella Marcella is a brand new crime drama from internationally renowned screenwriter and novelist Hans Rosenfeldt (The Bridge) . Set in contemporary London and starring Anna Friel, Marcella centers on the psychological struggles of a Metropolitan police officer at crisis point in her personal life, driven by rejection and intuition. Returning to the Met's Murder Squad after a 12-year career break, Marcella is a detective in her late 30s who gave up her fast-tracked role to marry and devote her life to starting a family. With the abrupt end to her marriage to the love of her life and isolated from her children at boarding school, Marcella returns to work – her sense of self shattered. She is immediately assigned to one of her old cases that she first worked on in 2003. A spate of recent killings has occurred, all carrying the same hallmarks as those unsolved murders committed over a decade ago. Has the killer re-appeared or is this a copycat murderer? How will Marcella cope with returning to duty when her own temperament is so fragile and vulnerable? Will throwing herself into her work provide the answers she's seeking or lead her dangerously into territory she must avoid at all costs? Marcella S1-3 premieres Saturday 9 August on SBS On Demand. Leonardo da Vinci A Ken Burns documentary series Leonardo Da Vinci A Ken Burns Documentary Series A fifteenth-century Italian polymath of soaring imagination and profound intellect, Leonardo da Vinci left behind artistic works of staggering beauty as well as detailed anatomical sketches, studies of geology, gravity and water, and designs for machines of war and flying contraptions that today are marvelled at for their ingenuity and foresight. From his birth out of wedlock to a notary and a peasant woman and apprenticeship to a distinguished Florentine craftsman, to his days as a military architect, cartographer, painter and muralist for hire, Leonardo da Vinci tells the story of one of humankind's most curious and innovative minds, a singular visionary whose Mona Lisa, The Last Supper and Vitruvian Man are among the most celebrated works of all time. Leonardo da Vinci premieres Saturday 9 August on SBS and SBS On Demand. Episodes air weekly at SBS starting Saturday 9 August at 8.20pm. La Unidad - seasons 2-3 The Spanish police arrest the world's most wanted terrorist during a routine operation, and Spain is caught in the crosshairs. Carla is the head of the police investigation unit that struggles at all times to keep terrorism in check. When one of the police operations ends with the coincidental arrest of Al Salah Garheeb, the most wanted Jihadist leader in the world, she will only be pleased for a few hours. As a result of his capture, Spain is to become the target of the threats made by Al Salah's followers; those of the religious leader's own son as well as those of the thousands of supporters who are prepared to sacrifice their own lives to avenge his arrest and fall. La Unidad S2-3 premieres Thursday 14 August on SBS On Demand. La Unidad season 1 premieres Friday 1 August on SBS On Demand. Little Fires Everywhere Based on Celeste Ng's 2017 bestseller, Little Fires Everywhere follows the intertwined fates of the picture-perfect Richardson family and the enigmatic mother and daughter who upend their lives. The story explores the weight of secrets, the nature of art and identity, the ferocious pull of motherhood – and the danger in believing that following the rules can avert disaster. The cast includes Reese Witherspoon (Elena Richardson), Kerry Washington (Mia Warren), Joshua Jackson (Bill Richardson), Rosemarie DeWitt (Linda McCullough), Jade Pettyjohn (Lexie Richardson), Jordan Elsass (Trip Richardson), Gavin Lewis (Moody Richardson), Megan Stott (Izzy Richardson), Lexi Underwood (Pearl Warren), and Huang Lu (Bebe). The series is produced by Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine, Kerry Washington's Simpson Street and ABC Signature Studios, a part of Disney Television Studios. Author Celeste Ng serves as producer. Little Fires Everywhere premieres Saturday 16 August on SBS On Demand. La Vuelta a España Hub La Vuelta 2024. Get in gear for this year's Vuelta a España (La Vuelta), Spain's annual multi-stage bicycle race, with a hub filled with replays, highlights and live action. 2025's race will be made up of 21 stages including 5 mountain stages and 3 hilly stages with high-altitude finales. It will cover a total distance of 3151 kilometres from Turin, Italy to Madrid, Spain. The La Vuelta a España Hub will be available from Monday 18 August. This year's La Vuelta a España commences on Saturday 23 August, finishing up on Sunday 14 September Adam Richman Eats Football Globally famous food explorer, Adam Richman, is back in Britain. He's embarking on another unique food tour of Britain, this time combining two of his biggest passions: food and football. Using the match as his menu, he's exploring the unique food cultures around some of the biggest football clubs in the country – from London to Liverpool, Brighton to Glasgow and beyond. The series features the best of classic fan-favourite footy scran like pies and burgers, but also more elevated fine dining now available in and around the country's top stadiums. Adam meets brilliant chefs, fans and food makers all over the country, each with a connection to the featured club as he delves into the history, ingredients, and process of creating delicious food for matchdays, or any other day of the week. Adam Richman Eats Football premieres Wednesday 20 August on SBS Food and SBS On Demand. Episodes air weekly at SBS Food starting Wednesday 20 August at 9pm. Safe Harbor Gifted hacker Tobias and his ambitious best friend Marco, are intent on cracking into the tech billionaires club. They are plucked from quiet obscurity and plunged headfirst into the chaos of organized crime when they cross paths with the Irish mob. Leading the family's operations in Holland are Sloane and her brother Farrell, who enlist their services to hack into the security system of Rotterdam harbor — Europe's largest shipping port — to secure the undetected deliveries of drug shipments. Safe Harbor premieres Thursday 21 August on SBS On Demand. Fatal Crossing Marie Sandø Jondal as Nora Sand in Fatal Crossing Nora Sand is a renowned journalist working as a correspondent for a Danish newspaper in London. When she's suspended due to an accusation for having had an intimate relationship with one of her sources in a big case, Nora travels home to live with her father. She has sworn to lie low until the scandal has cooled off, but when she's given a tip about an old missing persons case, she can't sit still any longer. Two girls disappeared from the ferry to England in the mid-80s. Since then, no one has seen them – until someone slips an envelope with old photos into Nora's mail box. Fatal Crossing season 1 premieres Thursday 21 August on SBS On Demand.
Daily Mirror
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Anna Friel pays tribute to 'amazing' Unforgivable co-star she's now 'a big fan' of
Emmy Award winner Anna Friel is about to showcase her acting talents in BBC's newest drama Unforgivable, alongside a hugely stellar cast Anna Friel is once again returning to screens and Liverpool - a city that she has always held dear after her acting career took off massively following a stint on the hugely popular British soap opera Brookside, in 1993. She played the role of Beth Jordache, portraying the first openly lesbian character in a soap, including the famous kissing scene with Nicola Stephenson, who depicted Margaret Clemence. Since then, she has gone on to achieve huge fame in shows such as Deep Water, Pushing Daisies and also won an International Emmy Award for Best Actress for her part in ITV's Marcella. Now, the critically acclaimed actress, will form part of the incredible cast in BBC's powerful drama Unforgivable. The new 90-minute series penned by the brilliant Cracker screenwriter Jimmy McGovern, sees her take on the role of Anna Mitchell. The story is Liverpool-based and centres around the lives of the Mitchell family who have been dealing with the devastating consequences of grooming and sexual abuse. Anna's brother Joe, played by Bobby Schofield, is the person who has committed the awful crimes and has been released from prison after serving a two year jail term. Alongside Anna and Bobby, Line of Duty actress Anna Maxwell Martin, takes on the role of Katherine, a former nun, who is helping Joe to rehabilitate through therapy. Adolescence star Austin Hayes, stars as Anna's eldest son and David Threlfall, plays the role of Anna's father, who becomes angry after realising she'd reached out to her abuser brother Joe. Each character has a unique role to play with showcasing how sexual abuse can completely ripple through a family as they all attempt to regain a sense of normality after facing the aftermath of such a devastating crime. The drama has landed on BBC's streaming platform this morning at 6am and will air tonight, from 9pm on BBC2, with the compelling story already proving to be a drama not to be missed. Away from the launch of the much talked about feature, Anna Friel has paid tribute to her Unforgivable co-stars and explained what life was really like behind-the-scenes. Speaking about her relationship with the star-studded cast, she had nothing but praise to air for her on-screen peers. In a conversation with BBC, she said: "I loved my scenes with David Threlfall, he became a new friend in my life." The former soap star added: "I hadn't met Anna Maxwell Martin before, but I've always thought she's an amazing actress and it was wonderful to find she's an amazing person. "We didn't have any scenes together apart from in the courtroom, but I'm a big fan. Bobby provides such a complex performance." Unforgivable will air on BBC Two at 9pm this Thursday and will be available on BBC iPlayer from the same day.
The Sun
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Celeb osteopath who parked outside uni halls with telescope and camera to perv on female students undressing is jailed
A CELEB osteopath who parked outside uni halls with a telescope and camera to perv on female students undressing has been jailed. Torben Hersborg wore a balaclava to hide his face and lay in the back of his Lexus to spy on the women in King's Cross, London. 3 The 64-year-old, whose celeb clients included Fearne Cotton and actress Anna Friel, was also spotted crawling around in the vehicle while peeking through the window. He has now been jailed for three years and five months and made the subject of a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO). The osteopath has pleaded guilty to three charges of observing a person doing a private act "for the purpose of obtaining sexual gratification". Snaresbrook Crown Court heard the offences took place on December 10, 14 and 21 last year. Varinder Hayre, prosecuting, said: "On December 21 at about 9pm, a member of the public reported that a male in a car has been taking photographs and videos of students in university students' accommodation. "The member of the public also said he has seen the male in the car about four years ago." The bystander also called police on December 10 and 14 but officers did not attend, the court heard. Hersborg was caught by police wearing black gloves and had black plastic bags lining the seats. When asked what he was doing, Hersborg claimed he had gone for drinks but felt like he was going to "pass out" on the way home so pulled over. But officers discovered a battery in his pocket and a camera and telescope in his car. Police recovered 68 images and videos that showed a woman in just a T-shirt, a different female sitting in her bedroom and another "seemingly getting dressed". A search was carried out at Hersborg's home and a large quantity of digital devices was seized. He gave no comment in his police interview, except to say he was "sorry for the whole situation". Hersborg is the director of the Central London Osteopathy and Sports Clinic in Old Street. His social media included video of a treatment session with Strictly star Viscountess Emma Weymouth, as well as photos with Oscar-winning actor Mark Rylance and Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood. Hersborg has also worked with Italian Serie A football team Brescia and the Danish Tennis Federation. He has been suspended from practising as an Osteopath by the General Osteopathic Council. Alex Weichselbaum of the Crown Prosecution Service said: "Hersborg operated in plain sight for too long and, having targeted thousands of women over 12 years, we believe the scale and significance of his offending makes him one of London's most prolific voyeurs. "His meticulously planned acts included setting up secret cameras in his clinic and covertly filming women - both in public and when they thought they were in the privacy of their own homes. "Hersborg deliberately abused the trust of his unwitting patients by filming them in intimate positions and targeted strangers for his own sexual gratification. "Women should be free to live their lives without unwanted intrusion – particularly from sexual offenders like Hersborg who deliberately chose to film or photograph them in their most private or intimate moments." 3
Telegraph
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Jimmy McGovern's new drama Unforgivable proves he is TV's best writer
'This is my third time working with Jimmy,' says Anna Friel. 'And I've never finished a script that I've been offered without crying.' She's talking about Jimmy McGovern, the writer of Cracker, Hillsborough and Accused, who for the past four decades has been delivering dramas of great emotional power and moral seriousness, staking a claim as the pre-eminent TV writer of our time. No one writes with such acute insight into the lives of ordinary people – and the hopes and struggles behind closed doors. From searing dramas, such as Priest, The Lakes and Hearts and Minds, he has gone on to campaigning works such as Common, Anthony and Time, splintering prejudice, demanding justice and a fairer country. In an age in which our screens have been hijacked by cosy crime and fantasy, as viewers escape into stories about the conspicuous wealth of the spoilt rich while everyone else's living standards fall, McGovern never gives up on realism or humanity. That he can still draw audiences to such subjects says everything about his gift for storytelling. Friel first worked with McGovern on The Street (2006-2009), which explored the lives of people on a single Manchester street, then later on Broken (2017), playing a woman who conceals her mother's death for financial reasons. In his new one-off drama for BBC Two, Unforgivable, the 75-year-old examines paedophilia – a crime of which he was himself a victim as a boy at a Catholic school. Friel plays the sister of a man who has abused his nephew – her son – and hates him for it. 'I'm writing a drama now that's about a sex offender,' McGovern told me himself in 2023. 'And I ask the question, is his sin forgivable, too? Does he not deserve the right to start all over again?' McGovern's answer to that question left its first preview audience stunned into silence, Friel reports. 'He's a writer that can take your breath away.' McGovern admitted this week that he thought the BBC would say no to the drama, which airs on Thursday, and that he had worried about a backlash from people who may think it offered a sympathetic view of child abusers. 'To be honest with you, it was so controversial, I think the BBC sat on it for a year,' says his long-time executive producer Colin McKeown. 'People always think that if Jimmy drops a betting slip, it will get produced. That isn't true. The journey of all the projects is always difficult, and it's always an awful lot of persuasion.' Much depends on McGovern 'being passionate enough to want to overcome the hurdles', McKeown insists. The producer has worked with McGovern since his very earliest days in television, writing on Channel 4's Brookside – the Liverpool soap created by Grange Hill supremo Phil Redmond. Redmond recalls they were on the hunt for 'really authentic Scouse voices', and McGovern's name was mentioned – he was Liverpool-born, had had three children in his early twenties, and was working as an English teacher at a city comprehensive; he had also begun writing plays for the Liverpool Playhouse. 'Right away you could see a grasp and understanding of dialogue, passion, a really good narrative,' McKeown, who helped launch Brookside, says. Redmond met McGovern in a pub – 'the aptly named Slaughter House', he recalls. 'Jimmy was Jimmy. He had that great sense of truth and justice… we talked a bit about the times when none of us had any money, and we survived. I just immediately knew this was a guy who would not be afraid to talk about life the way it is. I liked his humour, his empathy, his compassion. He also had that touch of sentimentality, which he tries to hide. 'I knew as soon as his first script came in that he had something,' he adds. From 1982 to 1989, McGovern would write 86 episodes of the show, not without clashes. 'Trying to get Jimmy to bottle what he had within the television regulations, that was a challenge,' Redmond says. 'We had a few ding dongs as we went along.' The classic one, he notes, was sparked by McGovern's anger towards the government of Margaret Thatcher. 'He couldn't even mention her name in the room before he'd start shaking.' McGovern, he recalls, 'wrote this fantastic, impassioned monologue' for one of the characters about the sinking of the Belgrano during the Falklands War in 1982. 'I said, you can't have that... it's too political.' It was too close to a general election, he believed, and could fall foul of electoral regulations. McGovern, though, wouldn't let it lie. 'He'd be doing a comedy [sequence] with [Michael Starke's perennial ne'er-do-well] Sinbad or something, and suddenly Sinbad would say, 'This reminds me of the Falklands War'. My red pen would go through it.' The saga went on for three years, until the show sent four of its characters away on a trip to Torquay. McGovern had discovered an interesting geographical feature just off the coast. 'And in the screenplay one of them turns round and says, 'D'you know what that rock's called? Thatcher's Rock. … Do you remember the Falklands?'' Redmond laughs. He let him have it. 'That's what I used to love about him: that Scouse tenacity and resilience.' Friel, of course, also shot to fame on Brookside, joining at 16 as Beth Jordache, a role that encompassed not only British TV's first primetime lesbian kiss but also a prison sentence for Beth, for her part in hiding her abusive father's body under the patio in the show's most talked-about storyline. She and McGovern did not cross paths on the show – he'd departed four years earlier – but she has vivid memories of watching Cracker (his 1993 post-Brookside breakthrough) at home with her parents. 'It's wonderful drama. He's still, to this day, one of my very, very, favourite writers. And I think he's one of Britain's most important writers.' And the wheel has come full circle, she notes. 'My daughter Grace has just turned 20; she's at Bristol University, and one of the things she had to break down as part of the film course was Cracker. It's now on university courses – because it was so groundbreaking.' Gwyneth Hughes, who wrote the campaigning drama Mr Bates vs the Post Office that aired last January, also remembers 'weeping buckets' watching Cracker while staying with a friend, and her 'helpless shuddering sobs' when Christopher Eccleston's DCI Bilborough was killed at the beginning of the second series. 'I'm a policeman's daughter,' she explains. McGovern's ability to tap into the feelings of his audience is a key facet of his talent, which he used with unflinching emotional force in his 1996 drama about the Hillsborough disaster, in which 97 Liverpool fans were killed. 'He is so socially aware, it hurts,' says the writer of The Responder, Tony Schumacher, who was later mentored by McGovern. Again and again, McGovern has taken on dramas around single issues, while putting his characters first, without resorting to proselytising sermons. 'I think what jumps off the page immediately with Jimmy's work is that there's never a wasted word in the script,' Friel says. 'Every single word matters and is used with impact and power. It's always straight to the point,' McKeown describes watching McGovern work as a story editor on the daytime drama series Moving On. 'He scribbled something on a script, then he buggered off to the loo. I had a look at it and he'd just crossed out, 'she tosses and turns in her sleep', and put down, 'sleep won't come'.' McGovern spent years bringing new writers through on Moving On. It was a long time later when he mentored Schumacher, but the former policeman notes that the English teacher in him was still strong. He would invite the younger man round, make him 'terrible soup' and quiz him at length about his life. Finally, weeks later, after asking him to pitch three ideas for TV shows, McGovern told him his own story should be his first show – 'and that was The Responder,' he says, 'it was my past as a bobby and everything else. 'He changed my life,' he says. McGovern, like Boys from the Blackstuff creator Alan Bleasdale before him, Schumacher believes, has become now 'part of the DNA of the city'. Redmond, meanwhile, hints at a still untapped reserve: 'Jimmy is brilliant at comedy, you know. I think he's still got a fantastic sitcom in him. He obviously gets it in the stuff he does, but if he sat down and decided to write a pure comedy, it'd be brilliant.' Unforgivable is on BBC Two on Thursday 24 July at 9pm
