Anna Friel and Jimmy McGovern on redemption, new drama Unforgivable and the power of storytelling

“Have you seen it? Did you find it a bit slow at times?”

Hey, Jimmy McGovern, we ask the questions here. But, since you are asking, yes we’ve seen Unforgivable and, no your new BBC Two film is not too slow. The way it gradually reveals layers of complexity and nuance in a story about child abuse and how its impact can echo through generations is compelling, important and timely.

Anna Friel, who returns for a third collaboration with McGovern following The Street in 2009 and Broken in 2017, joins us on the call. And she has no doubts about why the feature-length drama is vital viewing, explaining why she always wants to act in the veteran screenwriter’s work. 

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“They’re all working-class heroes, aren’t they? There’s always a message of finding and seeking justice and never giving up. And it’s always a very authentic world,” says Friel.

“Jimmy’s work is so hard-hitting and real and true. I don’t think any actor would ever say no to a Jimmy McGovern script. 

“The similarity in all three pieces has been that I’m playing a mother struggling to protect her children. Look at everything around us now – it’s not easy. But children always do come first. Mine certainly does.”

In Unforgivable, Friel plays Anna, a woman whose family is dealing with the aftermath of an act of abuse
committed by her brother upon her son. With her brother Joe (Bobby Schofield) set to be released from prison, her son is struggling to access mental health support. 

“Children need more support,” she says now. “I’m the daughter of two teachers. And the schools need more money, and mental health care needs more support and more money. Because we need to help protect and teach our next little generations in this very hard world they’re dealing with right now.”

It’s already a heady mix for a drama. But McGovern’s story also follows Joe as he is released from prison into St Maura’s – a church-run institution offering him a home and rehabilitation run by a former nun Katherine (Anna Maxwell Martin) – and subsequently seeks justice for abuse he himself suffered growing up. 

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“I got an email from a psychologist who told me about a young man who was sexually abused as a child and went on to become a sexual abuser himself – and then took the man who abused him to court,” explains McGovern.

“What grabbed me was that the man who had sexually abused him said to the jury, as happens in our film, ‘Who are you going to believe? Me, a responsible citizen, or him, a child abuser?’ And he walked free. Extraordinary, isn’t it?”

McGovern first made his name writing for Brookside when Channel 4’s soap was the best show on television. He left just before Friel joined the cast. 

“I was gutted,” he says, “because she proved then that she’s a tremendous actress, and you want your words to be acted by the best – and on soaps half the people who get those lines are not very good.”

McGovern has since established himself among the most important British dramatists writing for the small screen – with Cracker, Hillsborough, The Lakes, Sunday, The Street, Common, Accused, Reg, Broken, Care, Anthony and Time combining campaigning zeal, big issues and dramatic brilliance, winning four Baftas along the way.

In a year in which Adolescence reminded us of the big, real-world impact small-screen storytelling can have, McGovern continues his lifelong mission to tell powerful, political stories.

“Adolescence was such an important piece of drama. Just like everything Jimmy McGovern pens,” says Friel. 

“It showed how television is such a powerful medium. I have lots of girlfriends who have children a similar age – and it changed their water-cooler chat, for want of a more modern expression. And we’ve started taking phones off our children. It’s a dangerous time. Stevie [Stephen Graham] is the best of the best… and he learned from the best.”

So what do the pair want the conversation to be after viewers have watched Unforgivable on BBC Two?

“I sent an early link to my friend David Tait, who has climbed Everest five times and raised millions for the NSPCC because he was so badly abused up to the age of 10,” says Friel. 

“He is extraordinary. He goes all around the world, talking about his survival story. And when he watched it, he couldn’t stop crying. He said it was so true, about not getting the support he needed and feeling voiceless. That is major testament to the piece from a survivor. 

“This really is a story of redemption and forgiveness. What Jimmy cleverly does is that you come away from his pieces asking your own questions – but he doesn’t ever tell you what to think.”

McGovern nods: “I’ve done that carefully and conscientiously,” he says. “Overall, the big one for me would be that at the end of this film we decide to talk about child abuse in an intelligent and compassionate way. 

“To confront child abusers and make them suffer the full rigours of the law. Not soft on child abuse. But to have compassion and attempt understanding. If what comes out of this is intelligence and compassion and openness and a thorough, honest discussion, I will be very happy.”

Unforgivable is showing on BBC Two and iPlayer from 24 July.

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