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ANNA FRIEL believes her current character Marcella is a “force of nature” who can help us understand mental health issues as we emerge from lockdown.
ITV’S troubled and depressed detective is returning for a third season in which she goes undercover to break up a crime family in Northern Ireland.
The show, with its strong mental health narrative, is now also going out to millions on Netflix.
Asked about its impact globally, Friel said: “I think loneliness is a universal thing.
“It’s going to become much more apparent as we move out of lockdown and we start to see how people have suffered.
“Thank god mental health is something we are talking about much more, even more openly than when the show first started five years ago. I think so many people can relate to that.
“Marcella is a force of nature, no matter what is thrown at her – she still has that survival instinct. That’s what we’ve got to remember exists in all of us.
“I wish she had love in her life and someone would take her in their arms and say, ‘It’s going to be OK’. But no one seems to have ever done that.”
Friel, 44, was a sensation in Channel 4’s ground-breaking Brookside when her teenage Beth Jordache was one half of the first lesbian TV kiss in 1994.
Fellow Brookside legend Amanda Burton joins the third season of Marcella as the stern matriarch at the top of the violent crime family.
Friel said: “I only did 17 months [on Brookside] when I was 16 andamanda had already left the series.we couldn’t even reminisce as we worked with totally different cast and crew.
“But we knew Brookside gave us both a great start.”