In tense four-part thriller For Her Sins, Jo Joyner plays Laura Conroy, a high-flying lawyer who is also a mother to two young children, and has been quietly struggling with her new role as a parent — particularly with her husband Rob (Duncan Pow) frequently away on business.
When Emily (Rachel Shenton) arrives in Laura's life and helps her during a meltdown with Laura's daughter Eliza (Romi Hyland-Rylands), Laura sees Emily as the dependable friend she's been crying out for — but little does she realize that Emily has a hidden agenda and is subtly manipulating Laura and her loved ones.
We caught up with Jo to find out all about her latest role...
Jo Joyner interview for For Her Sins
How does Emily get into Laura's life and undermine her confidence?
"It's one of the things I really loved about this piece, because female friendships are complex — females are complex! What Rachel and I loved finding during filming where those moments where they misconstrue each other, or when Emily says something that Laura thinks is sharp, then she says it's a joke — that kind of thing that I think women are really good at, which is playing something underneath it, a double meaning."
"Laura's at such a low ebb when we meet her, in her home life, and it's so out of character because she's used to being in control and in charge at work. What Emily does really well is find her at that point and then just pulls those little threads every now and then — gaslighting her, ultimately, pretending to be the best thing in her life at the moment. So it's a really complex relationship, and it's written really well, and one of the things I loved about it was how she chips away at Laura's confidence without Laura even knowing."
Is Laura wary of Emily at all when they first meet?
"I think she is, but she denies that instinct because ultimately Emily suddenly looks like a magician to her, because this child [Eliza] never does what she wants her to do. She's so insecure about being a mother, she really doesn't think she's very good at it, so the minute she sees someone who is, she's kind of looking up to her too quickly. So I think she does have a little glimmer of something, but she pushes it to one side."
What was it like working with Rachel Shenton to build this relationship?
"I loved working with Rachel! I've never met her before, and I think she's a really formidable woman. We have something in common, which is that we don't really party hard, so we bonded over the fact that we were quite happy just having one drink, and then maybe going back to my room for a cup of tea and a bit of chocolate!"
"We got on very well and it was really easy — I've worked with a lot of fabulous men in my career and it's been a long time, probably since No Angels [C4 comedy-drama about nurses which aired from 2004-2006], since I've been paired with a woman for a storyline. So no offence to the men, but it was really lovely — there's always a different dynamic that happens, and I found it really refreshing to work with Rachel on a female storyline that had those qualities."
For Her Sins sees you reunited with Ann Mitchell, who played your character's mother in EastEnders — and she's playing Laura's mum here! Did you enjoy being together again?
"Isn't that funny?! It was completely accidental on their part as well, when they cast us they didn't realise. Actually, very often when you work with somebody, a sad part of the job is you know you're very unlikely to be cast with them again — I loved working with Jake Wood [on EastEnders] and I know it's very unlikely we'll be husband and wife again in the same show."
"It was really special, because I have a huge amount of admiration for Ann. She's a wonderful actress, she's got such an incredible history and so many wonderful stories. On a soap, we never really got to chat or spend time with each other — nobody hangs around in Borehamwood [where EastEnders is filmed], we all go home and learn tomorrow's stuff! — whereas this time we were all working away from home, so at the end of the night we could go for a glass of wine after work, and I would say we properly got to know each other, which we hadn't in all those years of working together before."
You filmed this series in Malta. Did you get much sightseeing in while you were there?
"No, we were doing six-day weeks! I loved the people — what was really lovely about it was that we had such a multicultural crew, there were Brazilian people, Italian people, French people, and everybody was really friendly, it was a great atmosphere. I think I had two Sundays where I got to see a little bit of Malta, and on all the others I was prepping. So yeah, it was a bit relentless — but lovely!"
- For Her Sins begins on Monday, June 5 at 9pm on Channel 5 and My5
