What's on TV (7-13 March 1998)

Mutually assured

While her career is going from strength to strength, Anna Friel admits her love life has given her nights of heartache. The young actress, who found fame as Beth Jordache in Brookside, has  had gher name in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

First, there was her painful split from boyfriend Darren Day, who's now dating Tracy Shaw from Coronation Street. Then she had a brief romance with singer Robbie Williams which ended in tears and stories of him out on a binge with a mystery blonde.

"I have put all that business behind me", insists Anna, who has just finished filming Rogue Trader with Ewan McGregor, which tells the story of disgraced Barings banker Nick Leeson. "But it hurt at the time. It hurt like 've never been hurt before - and it made me so strong that I don't think I could ever be hurt to that degree again. It will always be a part of me, something that made me what I am today. It gave me strength and made me sort my life out. It taught me things I could use when I am acting".

Now Anna, 21, joins a star-studded cast in Our Mutual Friend, a four-part version of Charles Dickens's tale of wealth, snobbery, apssion and murder which interweaves the tragic love stories of two young women - Bella Wilfer (Anna Friel) and Lizzie Hexam (Keeley Hawes).

- Adam Furness