ITV’s new drama I Fought the Law is a heart-wrenching yet inspiring true story based on Ann Ming’s book. 

Ann, 79, penned the memoir, called For the Love of Julie, following her tireless battle to change an 800-year-old British law.

The double jeopardy law had prevented justice for her beloved daughter Julie Hogg, who was 22 when she was murdered.

I Fought the Law, starring Sheridan Smith as Ann, is a new ITV four-part series based on the book. But how true to Ann’s horrifically gruelling yet uplifting tale is it? Here, we take a look.

What is I Fought the Law about?

I Fought the Law tells the tale of real-life mother Ann, from Stockton-on-Tess, who turned her grieving into action.

Ann’s daughter Julie was strangled and sexually assaulted in November 1989. Her killer, Billy Dunlop, admitted to murdering Julie but only after he had been acquitted following a trial and a re-trial. On both occasions, the jury had failed to reach a majority verdict.

Ann spent more than 15 years fighting to change an 800-year-old double jeopardy law. The law meant a person could not be charged with the same crime again if they’d already been acquitted for it.

This meant that, despite Dunlop confessing to being the killer – even admitting it to a police officer, he could not be charged with murder again. All he could face punishment for was perjury for lying at his trial and re-trial. He got six years in jail.

I Fought the Law begins shortly before Julie, who was working in a pizza shop, went missing. It details the horrifying moment Ann discovered her daughter’s body and the journey she then embarked on to change the law.

When did Ann write her book?

Ann’s book is called For the Love of Julie: A nightmare come true. A mother’s courage. A desperate fight for justice.

It was first published in September 2008 and, in Ann’s words, details her fight to ensure Dunlop was convinced for brutally killing her eldest daughter Julie.

A blurb for the book reads: “In this incredible and moving memoir, a mother tells of her fight for justice to convict her daughter’s murderer for a crime that he thought could never be punished.

“When her 22-year-old daughter, Julie, went missing in the night, Ann Ming was certain she had been murdered. Three months later she found her child’s decomposing body behind a bath panel.

“A violent local man, Billy Dunlop, was tried for her murder but a series of blunders allowed him to walk free. Knowing he could not be tried again under the law of Double Jeopardy, he callously bragged about his ‘perfect crime’. But Dunlop had not reckoned on Ann Ming…”

For the Love of Julie is published by HarperElement. A review in The Times newspaper said: “It is one of those tales about how life can turn on a sixpence: one minute everything is dandy, the next all is darkness.”

How closely does I Fought the Law follow Ann’s book?

Viewers are told in the opening credits for I Fought the Law that it is “based on the book For the Love of Julie by Ann Ming”.

Screenwriter Jamie Crichton and the series producers have since revealed they tried to portray the most truthful account as possible of Ann’s memoir.

Jamie explains: “Her book, For the Love of Julie, is a powerful and deeply moving piece of writing, and it gave me a wealth of insight to draw from. I would use her book as a starting point and ask her to share more about those moments in her own words.”

Charlotte Webber, executive producer, also reveals how much Ann helped when the production team were putting the series together.

She adds: “Early on, I went to visit Ann to show her the scripts and to look at photos and documents she has kept; every newspaper cutting, every letter sent and received, relating to her fight to change the law.

“Even if there was an inconsequential change to something we discussed, I would ring her to tell her. I couldn’t bear the thought of letting her down.”

Subtle changes

There are several inconstancies in I Fought the Law, although these are likely to go unnoticed.

In real life, Julie’s estranged husband was called Andrew Hogg. In I Fought the Law, his name has been changed to Matthew Hogg. The name of Julie’s neighbour has been changed from Kath to Bev.

Julie’s young son, Kevin, is also portrayed as a young school boy aged around five. He can be seen in one scene wearing his school shorts, shirt and tie while eating breakfast. Kevin was in fact three years old when his mum vanished and he only attended a play group.

At the start of each episode, a message reads: “Some names have been changed, some characters have been combined, and some scenes and characters created for the purpose of dramatisation.”

Writer Jamie Crichton adds: “This was a 17-year struggle, it went on for so long, but you have to move the story along for the audience.

“Changing an 800-year old law is a long and complicated process, it’s not a simple thing to do, so we couldn’t use every single thing that happened in Ann’s real story. My job was to make sure Ann’s emotional journey always took priority over the legal intricacies.”

‘I wanted to embody her’

The accuracies in I Fought the Law far outweigh any subtle changes that have been made. And these can be seen in even the smallest of moments.

A wedding photo of Julie, played by actress Victoria Wyant, is seen several times throughout the series. It’s almost identical to the real photograph of Julie that was released to the media when she was missing,

Sheridan Smith also made a conscious effort to “embody” Ann as much as she could. She says: “We filmed one scene that there is real footage of online, and it was really important to me that I played that exactly right. I even moved my handbag from one shoulder to the other, like she does in the clip.

“It’s little things like that, which nobody else will notice. But I just really wanted to embody her as much as I could.”

Where was I Fought the Law filmed?

Staying true to Ann’s real life account, I Fought the Law was filmed in the North East of England. The crew was based in Newcastle and many scenes were shot on location within the Teesside area.

Locations included Middlesbrough Town Hall and a disused police station Hartlepool. The scenes set in Julie’s house were shot in a real residential street. Producers described this as “challenging”, because all the locals knew what was being filmed.

Many of the crew members were local to area. They were said to have taken pride in helping tell the inspirational story of Teeside resident Ann.

Where can I watch the ITV drama?

I Fought the Law is four episodes, with each one lasting one hour. It stars on ITV1 and ITVX on Sunday August 31, 2025. Episode 2 will at the same time the following night, on Monday September 1.

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I Fought the Law will start on ITV1 and ITVX at 9pm on August 31, 2025.