I Fought the Law dramatizes Ann Ming's thirty-year campaign to overturn the double jeopardy law after her 22-year-old daughter Julie was murdered in 1989. The narrative prioritizes the Ming family's personal ordeal: discovering Julie's body three months after she went missing, enduring two traumatic trials, and living through years of injustice that strained marriage and resilience. Legal maneuvers are reserved for the final episode while most screen time limns family life before and after the crime. Strong casting, led by Sheridan Smith, and chilling performances deepen the emotional impact while systemic failings underpin the tragedy.
Is there any comfort to be had in knowing that police incompetence is not a new phenomenon? Not really, no. But it might be all you can find to cling on to during this harrowing, heartbreaking four-part drama. I Fought the Law is based on the true story of Ann Ming ,the murder of her 22-year-old daughter Julie in 1989 and her 30-year campaign to change the double jeopardy law so Julie's acquitted killer could be tried again for the crime.
First, the awareness that although the overturning of a law that had existed since Magna Carta is technically the most astonishing part of Ming's tale, it is not the most televisual. That, for better or worse, will always be the body blows she withstood, from finding her daughter's body three months after she went missing to the two horrendous trials she sat through and years of injustice.
The second great strength as is almost always the case is casting Sheridan Smith in the main role. Ordinary women in extraordinary circumstances are what she does, and few do it better. Here, she elevates a workaday script that dares not take too many liberties, lest it be seen to dishonour the story, and makes it genuinely moving. She gets help from the strong cast that is again, as ever assembled round her.
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