Sheridan Smith opens up about 'using drink' to cope after becoming 'totally different person'

Sheridan Smith is pretty much locked in as a ‘national treasure’, but not in the Nicolas Cage kind of way.

The 44-year-old earned her stripes on The Royle Family sitcom before landing several high-profile turns in biographical dramas focused on the likes of Cilla Black, Charmian Biggs and Lisa Lynch.

She’s also won hearts up and down the M4 via a supporting role in Gavin and Stacey.

After suffering what she herself has described as a ‘meltdown’ in 2016 in the wake of her father’s terminal cancer diagnosis, Smith took a career break during which she had her son Billy in 2020.

Smith has won acclaim for a string of biographical roles (Jeff Spicer / Stringer/Getty Images)

“Having moved up north with my little boy, suddenly coming back to London and having photographers shouting, ‘This way, this way,’ it’s overwhelming,” she told The Guardian.

“Obviously I used to drink and find my way through it that way – but now I’ve found therapy, got my little boy, I’m sober, doing yoga and meditation, I’m a totally different person.”

Her latest role as nurse Ann Ming in the ITV drama I Fought the Law, depicting Ming’s battle to change the double jeopardy law in the UK to precipitate the jailing of her daughter’s murderer, ‘took it out’ of her and testing her teetotal resolve.

“I was always going back and forth between drinking and sobriety. But this time I feel it’s for real,” she explained. “I am, though, going to choose my parts very carefully. Sobriety and my son come first, so anything that might knock me off kilter I would be careful of.”

She noted that one of the most challenging days on set came when she was filming a scene in which Ming reveals the truth of her daughter’s death to her grandson.

“I didn’t realise Ann was watching – I don’t think I could have done it if I had known – until she walked on set and said: ‘It was like you’re in my body,’” she said. “And we were both bawling our eyes out.”

Smith's stage and screen roles have often taken an emotional toll (Dave Benett / Contributor/Getty Images)

Smith has said that she finds herself returning to emotionally draining biographical role despite her wariness over the toll they can take on her.

“Ann doesn’t get to go home to her daughter. So the least I could do was go through those nine weeks’ torture,” she said.

“It is just acting, but at the same time I find playing a real person gives me purpose. I love doing comedy and make-believe but there’s something about playing a real person’s story.”