SECRETS, LIES AND DOWNTON
SHE’LL BE celebrating her fifth wedding anniversary next month – and, by tradition, that has to be marked with gifts of wood. Joanne Froggatt doesn’t know what might be in store and even if she did, she’s unlikely to share.
Born in North Yorkshire, the 37 year old might be one of the country’s most in-demand actresses, but she prefers to keeps her private life very much private. The last time that she and husband James (an IT director) were seen out together, it wasn’t for a showbiz premiere, but at Wimbledon, earlier in the year.
The couple are currently flying between the UK and California, as Joanna consolidates her success in
where she played Anna Bates, the maid to Lady Mary Crawley. She not only got nominated twice for an Emmy Award, but made it into the big time with a Golden Globe for best supporting actress.
It’s all a long way from Littlebeck – a small village on the Whitby road – where Joanne grew up and where, from an early age, she realised that she wanted to act. “I knew what I wanted to do before I could pretty much string comprehensible words together,” she says. “Since neither mum nor dad have any connection with the stage, but I was really determined and went from joining a drama group in Scarborough to the Redroofs Theatre School in Maidenhead.”
After training, Joanne first made her mark in 1996 in
playing the teenage mum Zoe Tattersall, and, when that role got written out, she landed a part that seemed to define her career.
was based on the harrowing true story of a young woman who saw her boyfriend brutally attacked in a road rage incident. Since then, she seems to have found herself a niche, portraying women who face moral and physical dilemmas.
Millions witnessed her as a victim of violent abuse in and her slow recovery and eventual happiness and in between she has played Myra Hindley’s sister in appeared as Joanne Lees in and as Mary Anne Cotton, the Victorian serial murderer in
“There have been lighter moments – please mention those as well,” she laughs referring to her roles as Anthony’s girlfriend Saskia in a Christmas special of and the fact she provides the voice to Wendy in the series. However, next up she is back to form as Laura in the ITV whodunit,
Written by the prodigiously gifted writing brothers Jack and Harry Williams, it is the story of how a sensible, gifted and apparently focused teacher meets a widower, Andrew, and how their relationship spectacularly crashes when Laura claims she has been attacked by her date.
Over the course of five weeks we learn who is telling the truth, and who is spinning a tissue of lies. Joanne, of course, is giving nothing away. “It could involve quite a lot of deceit on both sides,” she says diplomatically.
“I love playing challenging women. There’s so much more meat for an actress to get her teeth into. I don’t mean being totally and constantly evil, that would be one dimensional and very boring.
“But I do like people who have layers to them, who are not always what they seem, who appear as one thing, and who are actually quite another. And Laura is certainly that.
“The great thing about this screenplay is that Andrew is also a bit of a mystery. He’s a respected surgeon, a man who wants to find a new partner, and whose life has been affected by tragedy. But is he everything that his outward face tells us?
Andrew Earlham is played brilliantly by Ioan Gruffhud, who was lured back from Hollywood just for the part and, given the subjects it tackles, the series which begins on Monday is likely to attract much attention.
Joanne has long been an advocate of talking frankly about issues such as domestic and sexual abuse as the way of removing the taboos. “We are often guilty of that very British mentality of, ‘Don’t let’s mention it, possibly it might all go away’. But it comes down to this, unless we openly and frankly discuss things, and address them as sane adults, how will anything ever get any better?”
Joanne says she sees her job as playing the truth of the character, whether they be a murderer or a lady’s maid. “Everyone has a core of truth, and you have to find that and stick to it, otherwise any credibility goes out of the window before you’ve even opened your mouth.
“I always find it the most satisfying, as an actress, to play women who are flawed, but human.
“My own way of creating these women is to look into their psychologies. What drives them, what makes them who they are?
“I didn’t go to any survivors of abuse for but I certainly did for
and I talked to a lot of people involved in their care. The counsellors were superb at opening my eyes to the many ways that survivors react – some bury events, others want to talk about them incessantly.
“When you are doing a show that centres around any sensitive subject matter, obviously there’s an extra thought process and an extra responsibility to get it right. And by that, I mean that my performance has to be authentic.
“My own worst fear would be that someone at home, watching, and who had been through a similar experience, would not believe me, or think that I hadn’t put my heart and soul into it.
“That is a massive responsibility, but it’s not a bad thing because it helps me to push myself even further and harder, to ensure that you are always checking yourself and checking too that it is the best work that you can do.”
Joanne has already shown she can play a broad spectrum of roles, but there is one talent that eludes her.
“In they originally wrote Laura as a keen cyclist, but when I got the part I had to confess that I am just lousy on a bike. I never learned to ride one, and if I try it, I just fall over and end up in the gutter. So we swapped the bike for a kayak and I rather enjoyed it and yes, I might even take it up properly for my own pleasure.”
While looks to further cement her reputation, Joanne knows that the one question on everyone’s lips regards whether the long talked-of film of
will ever be made. “I’d love to do it and I think everyone else feels the same way,” she says. “But, logistically, it is going to be incredibly hard to get us all together in one place at the same time.
“Until then I’d like to think that after they left the big house Anna and John Bates ended up running a little bed and breakfast in Scarborough. A place with cruets on the tables. And strictly no hanky-panky from the guests. That is completely out of the question.”