Joanne Froggatt on Liar, the most timely television series of the year

In Liar, Joanne Froggatt plays Laura, a schoolteacher who accuses a renowned surgeon of rape. Photo / supplied

In the first episode of Liar, a schoolteacher goes on a date which, at first, goes well. Laura (Joanne Froggatt) shares dinner and wine with a surgeon named Andrew (Ioan Gruffudd); the pair end the night at Laura's apartment.

The next day, Laura wakes up distraught and confused. She believes she's been raped. Andrew denies it.

Liar, a six-part thriller depicting the events following Laura's accusation, was filmed in 2016. Just over two weeks after the first episode premiered in the UK, The New York Times published a story titled, 'Harvey Weinstein Paid Off Sexual Harassment Accusers for Decades'. The events that followed that article need no explanation.

Froggatt says the timing was uncanny. "It's one of those things that is just completely out of your hands," she says. "Who could have known that [the show] would be even more relevant? None of us could have possibly known that was going to happen."

Laura (Joanne Froggatt) and Andrew (Ioan Gruffudd)'s date in Liar has far-reaching consequences. Photo / supplied

Its timeliness is not the only remarkable thing about Liar. What unfolds after Laura's initial accusation becomes six hours of gripping, addictive television, led by an captivating and fierce performance from Froggatt. For Laura, it's her word against Andrew's; not only does she face the harrowing and difficult process of trying to prove the alleged assault, but also the ripples of her accusation within their small community, with reactions varying from supportive to dismissive.

"This show… throws up so many questions and highlights so many issues," says Froggatt. "One of those issues being how difficult it is to prove any event – not just a sexual assault accusation – when there's two people in a room and it's one person's word against another.

"In this case, Ioan [Gruffudd]'s character Andrew says the sex was consensual, and she says it wasn't. And she hasn't got any injuries, or there's no sort of outside indication to what happened, other than her word against his."

In a climate in which victim-blaming remains painfully common, and women are frequently not believed when accusing men of sexual assault, Liar faced a challenge of depicting the topic sensitively while also evolving the story into a strong, gritty thriller. Centred on the murky nature of truth and lies, Liar flips a 'whodunit' formula into a 'who's-telling-the-truth'. Froggatt – who says the cast were let in on the outcome from day one – says she was keen to embrace such a serious, once-taboo subject.

"Thrillers are usually set around incredibly sensitive subject matters, so it did occur to me that this shouldn't be a taboo subject matter in our society – which, when we started filming, it still felt like it was," she says.

Joanne Froggatt: "In whatever capacity, [sexual assault] should be something that's discussed". Photo / supplied

"Somebody said to me, 'Do you feel it's ethical to do a thriller based around this subject matter?' And I said, 'Well, why isn't it?' Because we'd do a thriller about a murder, or a child abduction, or other horrific events, so why is this still taboo? And isn't that part of the problem? In whatever capacity, it should be something that's discussed."

Despite knowing how the series was going to play out, Froggatt says she still managed to be surprised by her character. "It was a really interesting process filming because obviously you have to play the truth of your character, but it was a constant process of triple-checking what we were doing to make sure that we weren't giving away too much too soon."

To that end, director James Strong had the actors play the same scenes multiple times with different emotional responses. "He'd let us do instinctively what we wanted to do, and then he'd say, 'Okay, let's try one really held back, let's try one really angry, let's try one like this.' So he had options in the edit," she says. "I was really fascinated to see the end result because I knew there'd be surprises in there for me as well."

Joanne Froggatt says despite knowing the outcome of the show, the shoot still held surprises for her. Photo / supplied

Following the stories that dominated headlines in 2017, the film and TV industry has begun to assess its future, with movements such as Time's Up aimed at implementing positive change. Froggatt, who won a Golden Globe for her controversial role in Downton Abbey as a housemaid who is raped, says the movement is both urgent and long overdue.

"It's a really positive, important time that we are, as a society, talking about these issues and deciding on what the rules are; what is acceptable behaviour, and what is not acceptable behaviour, and what constitutes consent and what doesn't," she says. "They're important conversations to have… and it's been a long time coming."

LOWDOWN:
Who: Joanne Froggatt
What: Liar
When: Sunday January 28
Where: TVNZ 1