Interview with Anna Friel

What attracted you to this project?
Jimmy McGovern attracted me to this. I’m a massive, massive fan. I don’t make that a secret to anybody. I watch and love everything he does. I did The Street about seven years ago now, and ever since then I’ve always wanted to work with him again.

I like that Christina, the character I play, is a real fighter. Come what may, no matter what’s thrown at her she still fights to protect her kids. I think it represents really, truthfully, what a lot of women and mothers are forced to face these days.

How have you found working with the crew and team on this series?
Being a Northern girl, I hate the portrayal of the North as being miserable and gloomy. It’s not that! During filming I saw one of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve seen in years, which was just setting behind the cathedral in Liverpool and it was just breathtakingly beautiful. The North is a very beautiful place, and in Broken each vista almost looks like a painting. Joel, our director of photography, and Ashley, the director on my episodes, have done a really fine job.

How did you prepare for this role?
It’s all written so well and it’s so tight, that for me my preparation was daily concentration and not letting anything else come in so you can just become that character.
I also spent all my time that I wasn’t on set with Macy (Shackleton), who plays Lisa, my daughter. I think that the bond of making a believable mother and daughter can be challenging and we thankfully had an amazing rapport - to the point that I want her to play my daughter in everything else after this! She’s amazing, the casting director did a wonderful job in finding her.

How do you protect your emotions in roles like this?
As you get older it’s not really about the characters crossing over, it’s more about not having your little girl or partner there when you get back to the hotel to lift your spirits up. You get back to the loneliness of your room and I think that the older you get the less exciting that travel becomes, and you want your own home comforts. I guess it’s been good for me that Christina is quite lonely.

What’s it been like to be back in Liverpool filming?
There are so many things filming in Liverpool right now, which is amazing. I’d not been there for 23 years and I realised that I didn’t get to see any of it. I’m like - Hope Street rocks! The whole city does; with the music scene and the wonderful people.

What is it that attracts you to Jimmy McGovern’s writing?
Reading the scripts, you don’t want to change anything because it all works. I think that Jimmy understands actors; I think he reads it out as he writes. I read an amazing quote from him yesterday that said “my characters don’t cry unless I cry when I’m writing them”. Isn’t that beautiful?
Rhythmically, his writing is so good and solid. There are no “ands, ifs or buts”. No extra words are needed - it’s so straight to the point. I think that’s because Jimmy understands and has lived what he’s writing about. Not necessarily being a mother with three kids of course, but he understands what it is for a mother to have to scrimp and scrape to provide for her kids. So maybe it’s his understanding - but maybe he’s just clever!

Series credits

Father Michael Kerrigan - Sean Bean
Christina Fitzsimmons - Anna Friel
Roz Demichelis - Paula Malcomson
Father Peter Flaherty - Adrian Dunbar
P.C Andrew Powell – Mark Stanley
Helen Oyenusi - Muna Otaru
P.C. Dawn Morris - Aisling Loftus
Daniel Martin - Danny Sapani
Carl McKenna - Ned Dennehy
Chloe Demichelis - Lauren Lyle
Jean Reid - Rochenda Sandall

Created by Jimmy McGovern
Written by Jimmy McGovern, with Nick Leather, Shaun Duggan and Colette Kane
Directed by Ashley Pearce and Noreen Kershaw
Produced by Colin McKeown and Donna Molloy
Executive producers for LA Productions - Jimmy McGovern, Colin McKeown and Sean Bean
Executive producer for the BBC - Lucy Richer

GK

Related Programme Information

• Broken - episode one
• Broken - episode two