“There’s a horrible smell in the bathroom.” Spoken in the context of a true crime series, there are few sentences more harrowing. And yet in the case of ITV’s latest primetime drama I Fought the Law, that horrible smell – and the dead body it emanates from – is only the beginning.
The four-episode series tells the true story of Ann Ming, who in 1989 discovered her daughter’s body hidden beneath a bathtub at her home in Billingham. It was Ann’s relentless, decades-long campaign for justice that led to the overturning of England’s 800-year-old law of double jeopardy. Over four hours, I Fought the Law covers its ground meticulously, placing Ann neck-deep in a punitive and bureaucratic legal morass. It’s the sort of David v Goliath story that television loves; the involvement of the real Ann, a retired surgical nurse who is now 79, goes a long way in assuaging any ill-feeling over yet another true crime adaptation.
