Interview
Anna F r i el Chris Sullivan first met Anna Friel when the crew of Brookside moved in next door, and they went on to become firm friends. He caught up with her recently to find out how the actress’s career has progressed since her soap opera days
I
never want people to forget that I come from Rochdale, but I’d like them to forget I did Brookside,” declares actress Anna Friel adamantly, her Northern accent still most evident as she sits opposite me in a pub. “Looking back, all that controversy with Brookside was a good start, it made people know who I was but hopefully – and not just because I kissed a girl on telly – for all the right reasons.” I first met Friel when she was acting in the longrunning Liverpool-based soap opera Brookside. In a series of episodes her character, the controversial Beth Jordache, had run away from home to London, where she ensconced herself in a Kentish Town council flat. The flat they used for filming happened to be right next to the one I was living in at the time. When Anna saw me dressed in a
“American TV is like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Everyone was saying, you’ll never believe how much hard work it is and I’d say, ‘I’m used to it, having been in Brookside!’ But my God, were they right! You run off the set from one scene, get changed and run back on set. It’s all so fast and well organised” 22
