TV Times - 8-14 June 2002

When Anna Friel was asked to play a photographer in a new eco-drama, the paparazzi victim wondered if she'd end up reaping what she'd sown

Anna Friel knows exactly how it feels to be pursued by the paparazzi. After becoming a household name as Brookside babe Beth Jordache, party-loving Anna carved out her place on the celebrity A-list, and kept her face in the papers by falling in love with fellow actor, David Thewlis.

But now she finds out what life is like on the other side of the lens in the two-part BBC1 conspiracy thriller, Fields of Gold. After a four-year absence from TV, Anna returns as Lucia Merritt, a photographer who - along with boozy tabloid hack Roy Lodge (Phil Davis) - sniffs out a big story about sinister links between pharmaceutical companies and genetically-modified crops.

To research the role, Anna, 25, spent a few days with a real-life news photographer, Julie LeGrand, covering the 2001 funeral of anti-apartheid activist Donald Woods, whose story was told in Richard Attenborough's 1987 film, Cry Freedom.

This brought her dangerously close to a whole pack of paparazzi and she dreaded them turning their lenses on her. Instead, they let her borrow heir stepladders to give her a better view of the event. "They were great", she admits, surprising herself. "It's made me a bit softer about the paparazzi - it's actually quite a hard job to do !"

After spending the last four years working in small British films and treading the boards on Broadway, Anna was lured back to our screens by the powerful storyline in Fields of Gold. "I am passionate about food safety", she says. "And much of this drama is inspired by facts that need public attention drawn to them. TV is the strongest medium we have to achieve that".

Max Beesley,31, who plays reluctant GM farmer Mark Hurst in the drama, also threw himself into his role. The Mancunian actor - like Anna, no stranger to the tabloids because he used to date Spice Girl, Mel B - spent a week on a real farm and learned all about harvesting and milking cows. "The farmer said to me, 'You're very practical for an actor', " says Max proudly.

He admits that his professionalism did falter once while filming Fields of Gold. "During a take, I was talking loads of techno-jargon whilst picking up a pig. Then I felt something warm running down my leg and realised that it had relieved itself all over me!"

-Vicki Power