Death role

SINCE her days in the heady limelight of C4 soap Brookside, Anna Friel has proved herself an admirable actress.

She’s graced theatre stages, the big and small screen and is often hailed as a fashion icon.

And just when it looked as though she’d deserted us for the bright lights of Hollywood (you know you’ve made it when you’re asked to star alongside comedy heavyweight Will Ferrell), she’s back on the small screen in Without You, a three-parter based on Nicci French’s novel, What to Do When Someone Dies.

Friel stars as happily married teacher Ellie Manning, who’s left reeling when two police officers arrive to tell her that her husband, Greg (played by Marc Warren), has died in a car accident along with his mystery female passenger.

Ellie had no reason to doubt Greg’s fidelity before, but now, despite the support of his best mate and former boss, she finds herself wondering what really happened.

The coroner’s report of accidental death does nothing to put her mind at rest, and neither does discovering the identity of the passenger, businesswoman Milena Livingstone.

The dead woman’s husband, Hugo, seems to have no doubts that Milena and Greg were having an affair, or that their deaths were an accident. But as Ellie tries to prove otherwise, she’s left wondering just who she can trust.

Friel has relished being tasked with such a challenging role. “There is no easy, pretty way to deal with death and because of the tight schedule and filming time, it was relentless.

“Normally, I can let go and be chatty with all the crew, but on this I kind of stayed in a rattled state of mind. It was an emotionally draining role,” she says.

“With death, it’s a sad thing we all, at some point, have to deal with and I hope I captured that honestly and truthfully so that people can relate to it.

“Because everyone is different, there is no real answer of how to deal with loss.

It stays with you forever.”

Fans of the book should keep an eye out for some minor tweaks to the storyline, but they won’t be left disgruntled.

THERE may be many pretenders to the throne of property design king, but Kevin McCloud is the undisputed ruler. For more than a decade he’s been following all manner of new builds and conversions around Europe, but in the first of a two-parter he takes a break from marvelling over floating staircases and pricy kitchens.

With Kevin’s Grand Designs, he hopes to prove that homes that are nicer to live in than identikit abodes can be built for the same price as low-cost social housing.

While he may have spent years querying allegedly eco-friendly project managers over their choice of using concrete, and a thousand other problems, McCloud soon realises that grafting over your own build is a lot harder than providing witty pieces to camera.

Aside from struggling to find land, he runs up against the Nimby (not in my back yard) brigade, and falls out with his architect – all during the worst property crash for decades. Can McCloud make his Swindon-based experimental eco-development work or has he bitten off more than he can chew?

AFTER 20 – yes, 20 – seasons, comprising 456 hours of terrifically taut telly, crime drama Law And Order draws to a close. Second only to Gunsmoke as the longest-running US TV drama in history, it will be missed by scores of viewers on both sides of the Atlantic.

Tonight’s final edition sees Lupo, McCoy and the team off in style. The detectives leap into action when an anonymous blogger threatens to stage an explosive attack on a school.

But their investigation is hampered by an unhelpful Department of Education, who refuse to accept the threat is nothing more than an elaborate hoax. They also run into a resistant teachers' union, causing them further problems. Can they cut through the red tape to prevent a disaster?