Angela Black writers Harry and Jack Williams describe the limited series as a Hitchcockian psychological thriller. The sibling writing team set out to write a series about finding suspense in the little moments and in the little details, and they succeeded in creating a show that keeps the audience guessing and on the edge of their seats throughout its six-episode season.
In support of the series’ recent premiere on Spectrum, executive producer Christopher Aird joined stars Joanne Froggatt (Downton Abbey) and Samuel Adewunmi (The Last Tree) for the 2022 Television Critics Association’s virtual winter press tour. Froggatt plays the titular character, a wife and mother involved in an abusive relationship who’s willing to do whatever it takes to keep her children safe. Adewunmi co-stars as a private investigator who further complicates her life.
Joanne Froggatt did her homework to make sure she was realistically portraying a victim of domestic abuse.
“I did a lot of research and I read three books – one called You Can’t Run by a woman called Mandy Thomas, one called Beautiful by Katie Piper, and one called Brutally Honest by Melanie B. – all giving very differing accounts of their own experiences of domestic abuse, psychological and physical. But all three women writing incredibly openly and candidly and viscerally about their experiences. We also had Women’s Aid on board with our show from the very beginning, which is a British charity who support victims of domestic abuse. They were really pivotal in our show. They helped Jack and Harry at the scriptwriting stage, advised on all sorts of issues and the psychology of the characters.
And then when I came on board, they were incredibly helpful with me. They pointed me in the right direction of really useful research material. I spoke to some of their counselors. I also watched a lot of documentaries. I just wanted to sort of immerse myself as much as possible and in the subject matter find out as much information as possible from a psychological side, and also the obvious emotional side because I need to play Angela. And I then from there wanted to build a character and build a psychological profile for her, if you like, that I wanted to know what she’s thinking, what she’s feeling throughout the whole journey that we find her on,” explained Froggatt.
Froggatt said sometimes you just know a project’s right and with this one it was impossible to say no. “I’d worked with Jack and Harry before and everyone at Two Brothers on Liar, a show we did together a few years ago. And I’d had a fantastic experience working with them and I just love the company. It was a very collaborative experience. And then they sent me the script for Angela Black. They sent me the first three episodes, and I just read through all three in one sitting. I couldn’t put it down,” explained Froggatt. “So yeah, I just jumped at the chance to be able to play her.”
Samuel Adewunmi was hooked by all the twists and turns leading up to the series’ finale. “At the beginning of the show, it’s quite dark and somewhat harrowing from the first pages. And I’m the sort of weirdo that likes stuff like that…stuff that makes me feel something, whether that’s discomfort or extreme joy or extreme sadness,” said Adewunmi. “There was just a part of me that really empathized with Angela’s character but was also really curious as to where the story was going.
I think I watched maybe a couple of Harry and Jack’s stuff before and so, with this one, I was expecting to feel how I felt which was to feel kind of thrilled by this thriller. But at the same time, it made me massively uncomfortable. And as an artist, I think it’s always cool and interesting to try and tell stories that make you feel that way because, obviously, it just means that something inside you has sparked and something inside you has triggered.”
Adewunmi continued: “And as I continued to read the script, I was even more engrossed – a lot by Angela’s character and just how she was going to sort of fight for her survival, fight for her life, fight for her kids. And, of course, my character, Ed, being the mysterious guy that he is, being able to peel the onion, as it were, behind him and then try and learn more about him as the script went on.
I can’t say too much but it was really cool just to see how Ed developed as a character and sort of start to learn a bit more about what his true intentions are as the series progressed.”
Joanne Froggatt explained that as the series gets underway, Angela’s doing her best to appear as though her life is completely normal. By all outward appearances, Angela’s in a loving relationship and has a happy family life.
“She has this beautiful home. She’s got a beautiful husband, two beautiful children. But when you scratch the surface, the reality is very, very different. And when we meet her, she’s really in a place where she’s lost herself and she’s lost her voice. She’s lost confidence in her own sense of self, really, and her own mind in some ways,” explained Froggatt. “So, we go on such a journey with her that sort of breaks her down even further, and then builds her back up again to be able to overcome, in some ways, the situation we find her in at the beginning.”
“So it was just such a roller coaster journey for her, and as an actor, they’re the most interesting roles to play that you can really, hopefully, bring the most nuance and really get to grips with the psychology of how she’s feeling and why she’s behaving in the ways that she is,” said Froggatt.
Samuel Adewunmi describes Ed as a mystery man who remains an enigma throughout the limited series.
“I think he acts as a catalyst for disruption from what has become the norm for Angela and Olivier (played by Michiel Huisman), which shouldn’t be normal for anyone, to be honest, but we know what the topic is about in terms of domestic violence. Ed just seems to be the catalyst to trying to change Angela’s path or Angela’s story, and I think when we meet him, even though he is shrouded in mystery, and even though we may feel as if we can’t trust him, when I first read the script I felt like he was just someone that really empathized for Angela and saw that she was a woman in a really difficult situation that no one really deserves to go through what Angela went, but Angela especially didn’t.
You know, she volunteered at that dogs’ home and she was a really good mother – and a really kind person – yet she was receiving this horrible treatment. And so I felt like Ed just seemed to be like this sort of saving grace, this angel in the night, as it were.
And then, of course, as the show progresses we start to peel away at his mystery a bit, and you start to learn a lot more about how and why he came into Angela’s life at the time that he did. So, yeah, that was a very fun character to play as well.”
Angela Black has the audience guessing up until its final episode. How good would Joanne Froggatt be at figuring out the clues that are dropped along the way if she was just watching the show? “I still didn’t know while we were filming it so there’s no chance I would know as a viewer,” replied Froggatt, laughing. “Because until we got the final episode, I was still guessing lots of parts of the story. I was just like, ‘Oh, wow, okay. This is happening.’
So yeah, I definitely would be still guessing!”
Samuel Adewunmi admits he’d be in the same boat. “I like to think that I’m quite smart with these things and try to figure it out before the ending but, again, I guess [it’s a] testament to how good the writing was. It kind of always kept me guessing. And, yeah, every twist and turn was very real. I was just like, ‘What, and then what? Oh, my God!’
Hopefully, that’s how audiences feel as well.”
“I think I would agree with that or I hope that certainly,” said Christopher Aird. “And I think audiences are extremely demanding now, and they need that sort of engagement. Jack and Harry have this extraordinary ability to wrong foot you at every turn.”
