Sarah Smart: 'Amy's driven by a mother's love'

Sarah Smart: 'Amy's driven by a mother's love'
Sarah Smart: 'Amy's driven by a mother's love'

In next week's Identity on ITV1, Sarah Smart guest-stars as a mother living a secret life in witness protection. Here, she tells us more... When do we first meet Amy in the third episode of Identity? "Amy is living in witness protection, but her real identity as Suzie Green has just been uncovered. She’s a single mum because, Brian, the father of her son, Sam, was put in prison after he kidnapped a young girl who ended up dying. Amy was with Brian when it happened and she later testified against him in court." What does Amy want from her new life? "Amy is trying to piece her life back together. She just wants to be a good mother and get her life back on the straight and narrow after all the bad stuff that's happened to her – all because of a kidnapping that wasn't really her fault." Amy and Sam are taken to a safe house - and then Sam is kidnapped! What happens next? "When Sam ends up getting kidnapped, Amy has to visit Brian in prison to see if he'll give her any leads as to who has taken her son." How important is Sam to Amy? "Amy wants a better life for her son; she wants him to have a good education, but can't afford it. She thinks: 'Why shouldn’t he have the world? Why does he have to live undercover when he's completely innocent'." Does Amy know more about Sam's kidnap than she's letting on? "Without giving too much away, I can tell you that Amy's got her morals a little bit twisted because she wants her dream life. But I don't think she's completely bad – she's just driven by a mother's love." What was it like filming some of the stunts in Identity? "It was quite harrowing stuff, but really good fun to film; very exciting. I love all that kind of thing; special effects and being sprayed with bricks and sugar glass. Harrison, who played my son, was quite excited about it all too!" And did you enjoy playing a character who's living a double life? "I was playing somebody pretending to be somebody else, which is a nice mirror-image of what we do as actors anyway. I'd quite like to swap identities with a man for a day – I could probably get away with murder!" *Identity screens next on Monday, July 19 at 9pm on ITV1

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.