I Fought the Law series filming at Heddon, Northumberland

I Fought the Law, an ITV and Hera Pictures crime drama starring Sheridan Smith has been spotted filming at the Sir Knott Memorial Hall in Heddon, according to residents.

The award-winning singer and actress is starring in the lead role as real-life mother, Ann Ming, and her fight to change the Double Jeopardy Law and see her daughter’s murderer brought to justice.

It is the latest in a catalogue of shows filmed in Northumberland and the Tyne Valley, following popular drama Vera in Hexham and Robson Green's Weekend Escapes in Acomb and Allendale. 

Kenny Atkinson, head chef and owner of the One Star Michelin House of Tides restaurant in Newcastle, with Robson Green at Acomb Farm Shop (Image: Supplied)

Based on Ming's book For The Love of Julie, the series recounts how the tenacious mother of three battled for 15 years so that her daughter’s murderer could finally face justice, having been controversially acquitted following two mistrials.

The series explores how Ann and her family dealt with Julie’s disappearance in Billingham, Cleveland in November 1989 after working her late shift at a local pizza parlour.

Brenda Blethyn as Vera Stanhope filming in Hexham marketplace (Image: NQ)

Mother to three-year-old Kevin, Julie was incredibly close to her parents, Ann and Charlie, and was only 22 when she died.

Tragically, Ann found Julie’s body concealed in the bathroom of her modest terraced house in January 1990, 80 days after it was hidden behind the bath panel by her killer.

This was despite extensive searches of the property by police forensics teams in the days after her disappearance, who failed to detect her body.

Dissatisfied with Cleveland Constabulary and their investigation, Ann challenged senior officers and pressured the police to discover what had happened to her daughter and to prosecute the man who was guilty of her murder.  

Ann took on the criminal justice system, the Crown Prosecution Service, the Law Commission, eminent defence barristers in television debates, the Government, the Lord Chancellor, the Attorney General, and two Home Secretaries as she ‘fought the law'.

Filming is also taking place in Teesside and surrounding areas, in collaboration with North East Screen via the North East Production Fund.

The series is due to release in 2025.