Living on the edge
IF you missed the first series of ‘I Am…’, it’s a drama like no other. For each raw and emotional episode, director Dominic Savage collaborates closely with his lead actress, exploring an issue close to her heart.
Much of the series is improvised.
Last year, Line of Duty’s Vicky McClure acted in a piece about domestic abuse while Oscarnominated Samantha Morton played an exploited woman struggling to make ends meet.
Tonight, Doctor Foster star Suranne Jones pours her heart into the role of Victoria, a driven businesswoman channelling all of her energy into creating the socalled ‘perfect life’. Work is a huge success, she’s wealthy, she has a lovely family and they live in a beautiful house together.
But her relentless determination to live the dream comes at the cost of her own mental health and cracks are beginning to show.
Her husband, played by Ashley Walters, spots the first signs of strain when he struggles to get close to her.
Realising she’s living on a knife edge, he gently suggests she might need some help, but she doesn’t want to entertain the idea.
Later, when friends come round for dinner, she completely unravels after smashing a bowl – her anxiety goes into overdrive as she thinks the whole evening is now ruined, and she can’t hold her feelings in any longer.
It’s a tough watch at times, but an arresting portrait of a woman spiralling into an abyss.
Letitia Wright and Lesley Manville will star in the other episodes of series two, which continues next week.