Sophie Turner’s performance in ITV drama Joan has been branded ‘incredible’ by viewers following it’s first episode on Sunday.
The Game Of Thrones star, 28, plays the real-life jewel thief Joan ‘The Godmother’ Hannington in the new six-part crime series, with the opening instalment featuring a very special cameo.
During one scene Sophie’s character meets her future husband Boisie Hannington (Frank Dillane) in a pub, with the bartender played by the couple’s actual son Benny Banks.
Speaking ahead of the episode Sophie said: ‘It’s amazing because in the scene that we meet first in the pub, the bartender was played by Joan’s son Benny’.
‘It was so cool to have that because it’s the moment his parents meet and he got to be there and we got to hang out with him’.
Meanwhile viewers were full of praise for Sophie’s performance as she played the young mum who ventures into the 1980s criminal underworld in a bid to make a better life for her young daughter.
Writing: ‘Sophie Turner is such a great actress. Brilliant first episode’: ‘Sophie Turner is very goo in this new ITV series’: ‘Joan is bloody brilliant, decided to watch the second episode on ITVX it’s that good. Sophie Turner and indeed her onscreen persona is playing a blinder!’: ‘Sophie Turner take a bow you were fantastic’.
The series will follow Joan’s journey from housewife and mother, to petty offender, to diamond thief and criminal mastermind in 1980s London.
In a press conference about the show, Sophie explained she had no problem turning on the waterworks, saying: ‘I’m a Pisces, I’m emotional.’
On her new role as mother Joan, Sophie said: ‘She is so funny but she has gone through so much trauma and is so ambitious.
‘There really is so much to her – mother, lover, liar, thief. It’s just remarkable that it’s all a true story.’
The drama follows Joan as she escapes her violent husband but has to place her daughter into care as she gets back on her feet.
With no money and nowhere to live, she manages to secure a job in a jeweller’s, from where she steals her first diamonds.
It comes after Sophie has candidly admitted that it’s a ‘struggle’ being a single mother after her divorce from Joe Jonas.
On September 11, it was reported that Sophie and her estranged husband Joe, 35, of the Jonas Brothers, had finally completed their year-long divorce.
Sophie went Instagram official with her boyfriend, aristocrat Peregrine Pearson, last Monday, delighting fans. She married Joe in 2019.
On her new role as mother Joan, Sophie told The Sunday Times Culture Magazine: ‘Joan changed me quite a lot. From utter desperation comes so much will and ambition.
‘The series came around at a time in my life where I had to be ambitious and I had to have such strong will and fight against the forces. She gave me a lot of strength.
‘If I hadn’t been a mother, I don’t know if I would have been able to bring the same energy that I did into it. It’s such a struggle being a single mother.’
Earlier this week Sophie admitted that she became ‘swept away’ by emotion as she filmed ITV‘s Joan, after kickstarting work on the series during her divorce from Joe.
The series will follow Joan’s journey from housewife and mother, to petty offender, to diamond thief and criminal mastermind in 1980s London.
In a press conference about the show, Sophie explained she had no problem turning on the waterworks, saying: ‘I’m a Pisces, I’m emotional.’
On her new role as mother Joan, Sophie said: ‘She is so funny but she has gone through so much trauma and is so ambitious.
‘There really is so much to her – mother, lover, liar, thief. It’s just remarkable that it’s all a true story.’
