As Downton Abbey’s Mrs Bates, Joanne Froggatt was married to the trusted employee of the head of a wealthy dynasty. Ten years later, in MobLand, she is playing the wife of ‘fixer’ Harry (Tom Hardy), who works for well-heeled country gent Conrad Harrigan (former 007 Pierce Brosnan) and his wife Maeve (Helen Mirren).
But while Conrad likes to relax with a spot of fishing at his impressive rural residence, having a family connection to this unpredictable Irish mob boss is considerably more eventful – and dangerous – than life below stairs at the Crawleys' ancestral home!
The star-studded series, also featuring Paddy Considine (Game of Thrones), Lara Pulver (Sherlock) and Mandeep Dhillon (After Life) as members of the extended Harrigan clan, follows the fallout when two powerful London crime families go to war.
Hostilities commence after a night out for Conrad’s grandson Eddie (Anson Boon) and Tommy, son of his business rival Richie Stevenson (Geoff Bell), ends in tragedy, and Harry is told to pick up the pieces.
Meanwhile Harry has troubles of his own, as Jan urges him to agree to couples counselling. And amid the confusion, Conrad and the influential Maeve sense an opportunity to expand their empire.
We caught up with the versatile Joanne to see whether she’d crack under questioning…
Joanne, how would you describe this series?
"It’s an epic underworld drama based around two warring families in the organised crime world of London. One is the Harrigans, the other is the Stevensons, and everybody connected to them is dragged into situations they'd probably rather not be in!"
What can you tell us about your character, Jan?
"Jan is married to Harry, played by Tom Hardy, who is the loyal fixer for the Harrigans. Jan and Harry have been together for over 20 years and have a teenage daughter."
What is Jan’s life like when we meet her?
"She is at a stage where she's looking at her life and wondering what's next. Her daughter is 16, so she’s going to fly the nest in a couple of years, and where does that leave Jan?"
Harry is a hardened and violent criminal. What sort of husband is he?
"We wanted to make Jan and Harry a couple you can actually relate to. Harry keeps home separate from work, and that’s how they've navigated life so far. But when things start to encroach from work into their personal lives, that causes a big issue!"
What is the dynamic between the two of them?
"In every other aspect of Harry's life, he's in control. Jan is the one person who will always tell him the truth, and the one person he will take it from."
Is Harry on board with Jan’s plans for the future?
"Harry is more and more involved in his ethically questionable work! But Jan was hoping by this stage in their lives he’d be stepping back a little, So she is questioning which family comes first: the Harrigans or their own?"
We first see Jan going to a therapy class. Is something missing in her life?
"Jan’s searching for something – happiness, I suppose. She wants to fix things in her marriage and for Harry to open up. They've become a little distant from each other and fallen into a rut."
How does being the wife of a gangland enforcer impact on her existence?
"She doesn't work, and it’s difficult to have friends, because she can't tell them about her life. And being married to Harry, she inevitably becomes embroiled in whatever is happening in his world!
"But then she meets Alice [Emily Barber], who she's inspired by. When she's with Alice, she's doing something for herself, and they bond over relationship issues, although they're very different."
What’s in store for Jan as the series continues?
"She’d previously lost herself in Harry’s world, and now she's finding a new lease of life, and going on a journey of self-discovery. However that can only go so far before Harry's world collides with it, and she's not able to continue!"
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