Here’s What We Know About Sheridan Smith’s New ITV Drama

From ITV’s explosive Mr Bates vs The Post Office to Netflix’s Toxic Town and upcoming drama The Hack, it is safe to say British TV has a slight preoccupation with true stories as of late. The latest on ITV’s roster (which has also brought us Joan, The Long Shadow and Until I Kill You in recent years) is a heartbreaking four-part drama detailing a mother’s 15 year fight for justice for her murdered daughter, brought to life by Sheridan Smith. Here is everything we know so far about I Fought The Law, plus when it will be on our television screens.

Sheridan Smith as Ann Ming & Charlie York Lo as Charlie Ming in I Fought The Law. (© Hera Pictures/ITV)

I Fought The Law: Plot, Cast, Release Date & More

In the works since spring 2024, I Fought The Law centres on Ann Ming (Sheridan Smith), a tenacious mother of three whose daughter was tragically murdered, triggering a 15 year fight for justice.

It is 1989, and 22-year-old Julie disappears after working the late shift at the local pizza parlour in Billingham, Cleveland. Very close to her parents Ann and Charlie (Daniel York Loh), and a mother herself to three-year-old Kevin, Julie’s family and the police hunt for her for 80 days before her mother makes a tragic discovery. Ann finds Julie’s decaying body in the bathroom of her modest terraced house, concealed behind a bath panel by the killer – despite ostensibly extensive searches by police forensics.

Filmed in Teesside in summer 2024 and directed by Erik Richter Strand, I Fought The Law details Ann Ming’s real fight for her daughter’s justice in the face of police failings, mistrials and antiquated law enforcement. ‘My daughter’s killer was wrongfully acquitted, and a number of years later confessed to her murder, for which he could only be prosecuted for perjury due to the 800-year-old Double Jeopardy Law,’ she explained when the series was first revealed in May 2024. ‘I wasn’t going to let this stand in my way of getting justice for Julie.’

Ann’s 15 year fight against the law saw her take on everyone from the Criminal Justice System and the Crown Prosecution Service to the Law Commission, eminent Defence Barristers in television debates, the government, the Lord Chancellor, the Attorney General and two Home Secretaries.

Sheridan Smith as Ann Ming, Daniel York Loh as Charlie Ming & Buddy Wingnall-Ho as Kevin Hogg in I Fought The Law. (© Hera Pictures/ITV)

The Cast

Sheridan Smith leads I Fought The Law as grieving yet determined mother Ann Ming, which she describes as an ‘honour’. ‘She is a truly courageous and remarkable woman to whom we all owe a debt of gratitude.’

When she first read the scripts, Smith says ‘I was on board straight away’. ‘I instantly knew that I had to play Ann – because of her story, her resilience, her strength and everything she went through to fight an 800-year old law, she just wouldn’t give up,’ Smith says.

‘I’m overwhelmed that Sheridan Smith will be playing me,’ the real woman adds. ‘Having such an iconic and talented actress portray me is truly wonderful.’

Upon meeting her, Ann says ‘she felt really comfortable’ with Smith. ‘There was no pretence, she was just an ordinary person with such an amazing ability to act,’ Ann says. ‘I felt so confident she would do her best with our story, and when I watched the drama it was like she’d just got inside of me. It was so strange and hard to explain. She sent me a lovely message at Christmas saying it had been a privilege to play me, and I said it had been the highlight of my year watching her becoming me. It must have been strange for her thinking that I’d be watching, so she had to get it right.’

Joining Smith in I Fought The Law is a stellar cast of familiar faces, including Daniel York Loh as her husband Charlie and Enzo Cilenti as the cop leading the case, DS Mark Braithwaite.

Sheridan Smith as Ann Ming & Charlie York Lo as Charlie Ming in I Fought The Law. (© Hera Pictures/ITV)

The full cast we know so far is as follows:

• Sheridan Smith as Ann Ming
• Daniel York Loh as Charlie Ming
• Enzo Cilenti as DS Mark Braithwaite
• Marlowe Chan-Reeves as Gary
• Olivia Ng as Angela
• Jake Davies as Matthew
• Buddy Wignall-Ho as young Kevin Hogg
• Harry Jones as Kevin Hogg aged 14 to 17
• Victoria Wyant as Julie Hogg
• Kent Riley as DI Keith Arnold
• Jack James Ryan as Billy Dunlop
• Andrew Lancel as Guy Whitburn QC
• Rufus Jones as Lord Goldsmith

Sherdian Smith as Ann Ming in I Fought The Law. (© Hera Pictures/ITV)

The True Story Behind I Fought The Law

While the TV series was written by Jamie Crichton, I Fought The Law is actually based on a book: For The Love Of Julie by Ann Ming, published in 2008. Looking back, Ann describes writing her book as ‘cathartic’ adding ‘I got down what I wanted to say’. She worked closely with Crichton to bring her story to the screen, telling him ‘he could come to me with any queries, even if he called me every single day, because I wanted it to be right and as close to the truth as it could possibly be’.

The whole story begins in November 1989 when Julie went missing. It all started when Ann called her daughter and she did not pick up the phone – already out of character for Julie who spoke to her mother everyday. Also due in court to seek a separation from her husband, Julie’s silence was all the more concerning for Ann, who promptly decided to pay her daughter’s home a visit.

Once there, again, no answer. Ann enlisted the help of her son Gary to break inside, only to find Julie’s house empty. Now seriously worried, Ann called the police – who told her Julie had probably just left of her own accord, despite evidently not taking her three-year-old son Kevin.

For three months, Julie was missing, with little interest paid by the police. Ann passed out missing person flyers, continually checked in with the police and appeared in TV interviews to appeal for help finding her daughter – until one day she returned to Julie’s house. Here Andrew, Julie’s ex, was grappling with a worsening stench in the bathroom. When Ann tentatively pushed a loose bath panel, she was horrified to find Julie’s dead, decaying body hidden there, wrapped in a blanket.

How did the police fail to find her during their five-day search of Julie’s small house three months ago? Ann was baffled. Resuming their investigation, the police quickly found evidence condemning William ‘Billy’ Dunlop, a former boxer with a violent history living two streets away who previously had a brief fling with Julie; they found her house key under his floorboards.

Jack James Ryan as Billy Dunlop in I Fought The Law. (© Hera Pictures/ITV)

Dunlop was charged with Julie’s murder in February 1990 – but at his trial the jury failed to reach a verdict. A re-trial (another mistrial) left Dunlop a free man – and this is where Ann’s real fight for justice throughout the ‘90s and into the 2000s begins.

Dunlop could not be tried again because of the 800-year-old Double Jeopardy law, which prevents people being repeatedly tried for the same crime. So when Dunlop admitted to killing Julie in 2006 (while imprisoned for separate crimes), Billy could still only be tried for perjury. ‘That just did not seem right,’ Ann says. ‘If there’s a proven wrongful conviction, I’d be the first to say that person should be freed, but when there has been a proven wrongful acquittal such as ours, surely the same principles should apply.’

The whole experience was understandably ‘horrible’ Ann recalls. ‘[Billy] was bragging in pubs about committing the perfect murder, but he only got six years in prison,’ she says. ‘I was absolutely incensed.’

‘We went straight to our MP and I said I was going to look into this law change,’ Ann remembers. ‘My solicitor said I was wasting my time and that no matter what the government told me, they would never, ever change this law retrospectively. My husband told me to listen to the solicitor, but I didn’t care what anyone said. I said, “I can’t rest until I get justice for Julie and if there’s an 800-year old law standing in my way then so be it”.

‘That’s what I said out loud, but inside I was thinking I couldn’t carry on, especially when people in government were opposing the change,’ Ann says. ‘These were official people and lawyers, and I was just a retired nurse. A lot of people think there was a team of lawyers behind me and that wasn’t the case, I was a one-man band, it was just me. But I’m glad I carried on and stuck it out.’

Daniel York Loh as Charlie Ming & Sheridan Smith as Ann Ming in I Fought The Law. (© Hera Pictures/ITV)

‘As soon as I heard Ann’s story, of her iron resolve and unbelievable courage to see justice done in the face of adversity, I knew this was one that had to be told,’ Crichton says. ‘Ann is a shining beacon of what can be achieved if you stop at nothing to make your voice heard. In an age when it’s all too easy to feel helpless, we need more Ann Mings in the world.’

When she finally got to watch I Fought The Law, Ann says she ‘cried all the way through’. ‘I didn’t think I’d be as emotional as I was, but as I was watching I was going through every emotion I was feeling at the time,’ she says. ‘I’d love to sit and watch it again with Sheridan, just so she knows how much she has affected me with her performance.

‘It was a different feeling to doing the book, it was more emotional somehow,’ she adds. ‘The drama portrays my journey and what it’s like behind the scenes when you’re fighting a law. People might think it was easy, but it wasn’t. If I saw any politician opposing the change, I’d write to them, and they were hand-written letters. When David Blunkett took over from Jack Straw as Home Secretary I even got my letter translated into Braille.

‘I wasn’t easy to live with,’ she continues. ‘I’d be up in the middle of the night and my husband would ask what would happen if we didn’t succeed, but I didn’t want to hear any negativity. I had post-traumatic stress from finding Julie, so it wasn’t easy, and I was mentally and physically drained. There was a lot of waiting between meetings and various stages to get through – I didn’t know anything about politics before I did this, or how to get a law change through Parliament.’

Like many of ITV’s true story dramas, I Fought The Law will be accompanied by a one-off documentary delving into the real story. I Fought The Law: The Ann Ming Story will air on ITV once the drama has aired, narrated by Smith.

Ann Ming in I Fought the Law: The Ann Ming Story. (© MultiStory Media/ITV)

‘I’m living a full life sentence,’ Ann says now. ‘It’s the same for anyone whose loved one has been murdered. You’re forever haunted by what happened. I’ll be 80 this year, so I’m not campaigning anymore. If I was younger I’d be looking at the parole system because I’ve had to fight so that her killer doesn’t go to an open prison.

‘Julie’s son Kevin is 39 now,’ Ann adds. ‘He has a son of his own and he works helping other victims’ families. Julie was a quiet child and when she had Kevin she came out of her shell. The thing that has changed for me is that I’m not frightened to die now, because I know Julie will be there waiting for me.’

Reflecting on her lengthy battle, Ann says: ‘There have been 15 cases after ours in this country that have been affected by the same law, and I think “Thank God I carried on”.

‘When it all went through and we succeeded I honestly just couldn’t believe it,’ she remembers. ‘Obviously my daughter wasn’t coming back, but it could make a difference to other families. I got an MBE and I went to the Palace to receive it from Prince Charles, as he was then. I’d have given anything to have my daughter instead of getting a badge.

‘After the drama is out I’d love ITV to send Trump a copy of the DVD and a letter, and ask him to change the law in America, because double jeopardy still stands there,’ she adds.

When Is I Fought The Law On TV?

I Fought The Law kicks off at 9pm on Sunday 31 August 2025 on ITV1, followed by episode 2 on Monday evening. The release schedule is as follows:

• Episode 1: 9pm Sunday 31 August, ITV1
• Episode 2: 9pm Monday 1 September, ITV1
• Episode 3: 9pm Sunday 7 September, ITV1
• Episode 4: 9pm Monday 8 September, ITV1

All four episodes will be available to stream on ITVX.