Anna Friel

In Pushing Daisies (2007), Anna Friel and Lee Pace make the space between two people hurt. Chuck and Ned cannot touch, and the actors understand how much feeling that simple restriction can carry. We were moved by their enforced distance because they made reaching for someone seem like a comfort we had taken for granted. It is a persuasive performance in a programme whose sweetness can be exhausting.

Her move from Beth Jordache in Brookside (1993–1995) to Prue in The Land Girls (1998) took her from soap into feature films. Pushing Daisies brought an American breakthrough in 2007; the later title role in Marcella (2016–2021) fits the emotionally demanding crime parts that recur in her work. That change of material need not make Chuck seem a lighter achievement. Getting us to believe in a romance with an impossible restriction is demanding work in itself, and Friel gives it the attention it needs.

Friel's contribution is particularly clear beside Pace's hesitancy. She brings enough warmth to stop Chuck and Ned becoming two people defined entirely by what they cannot do. There is a sense that they might enjoy being together if only they were allowed the ordinary means of expressing it. She takes the silliness seriously, but does not treat every exchange as a tragedy, which lets us care about the romance without being instructed to grieve for it.

Some early responses to her work in Closer (1999) noted underplaying and mechanical gestures. That is a useful caution when praising an actor for the effort she puts into demanding material. In Marcella, the vulnerability she brings alongside strength is the quality worth following, rather than the mere fact of taking on a tough role. We would still start with Chuck, provided an evening of persistent sweetness sounds like pleasure rather than punishment.