The anne tv series cast is led by Maxine Peake as Anne Williams, with Stephen Walters, Mathew McNulty, Clare Calbraith, Rob Jarvis, and Ian Puleston-Davies playing key people around her campaign for Hillsborough justice. If you are checking the cast because you started the ITV drama and are trying to separate the family members, campaigners, and public figures, the quickest way in is to treat Anne Williams' family as the emotional centre and the researchers, survivors, and politicians as the wider support network.
Who Is in the Anne TV Series Cast?
Anne is not connected to Anne with an E. It is the 2022 ITV factual drama about Anne Williams, whose son Kevin died as a result of the Hillsborough disaster, and the cast reflects that serious real-life setting.
If you are watching casually, focus first on Anne, Steve, Kevin, and Sara Williams. If you are trying to understand the history behind the drama, pay closer attention to Sheila Coleman, Phil Scraton, Andy Burnham, and the survivor/family characters because they show how the campaign moved beyond one household.
Maxine Peake as Anne Williams
Maxine Peake plays Anne Williams, the central figure in the series. Her performance has to carry grief, anger, exhaustion, and persistence without turning Anne into a simple symbol of campaigning.
Peake is known for work in Silk, Shameless, The Village, and Black Mirror. In Anne, the important thing is not just recognisable casting; it is how restrained the performance feels when the story moves between private family pain and public pressure for answers.
Stephen Walters as Steve Williams
Stephen Walters plays Steve Williams, Anne's husband and Kevin's stepfather. His scenes give the drama a quieter kind of grief, which matters because the series does not present the family as reacting in one identical way.
Walters has appeared in Outlander, Shetland, Silent Witness, and Little Boy Blue. His role is especially useful for viewers who want to understand the strain inside the family, not only the public campaign outside it.
Mathew McNulty as Andy Burnham
Mathew McNulty plays Andy Burnham. The character marks the point where the families' fight for truth becomes more visible in national politics, rather than remaining only a local or private struggle.
McNulty's role should not be read as replacing the work of the families. It is there to show how political attention can become part of a long campaign when public pressure, testimony, and evidence have already been built over many years.
Clare Calbraith as Sheila Coleman
Clare Calbraith plays Sheila Coleman, one of the most important supporting figures for understanding how the campaign worked in practice. Her role is less about dramatic speeches and more about persistence: records, statements, follow-up, and careful attention to detail.
Rob Jarvis as John Glover
Rob Jarvis plays John Glover, another bereaved parent connected to the Hillsborough story. The role widens the drama beyond Anne Williams' household and reminds viewers that many families were living with similar loss and frustration.
Jarvis brings a grounded, understated presence, which suits the series. His character is not there to pull focus away from Anne; he helps show the wider community of parents and relatives who also wanted truth and accountability.
Ian Puleston-Davies as Phil Scraton
Ian Puleston-Davies plays Professor Phil Scraton. His character brings the research and investigative side of the Hillsborough campaign into clearer view.
Who Are the Supporting Cast Members?
The supporting cast helps Anne avoid becoming a one-person biography. These roles show the wider world around Anne Williams: survivors, relatives, campaign contacts, and the younger family members affected by years of grief and pressure.
Raymond Waring as Steve Hart
Raymond Waring plays Steve Hart, a Hillsborough survivor. His role matters because the series is not only about what families were told afterward; it also points to the importance of people who were there and whose memories and testimony challenged easier official versions of events.
John McGrellis as Colin
John McGrellis appears as Colin. It is a smaller role, but it helps make Anne's world feel less artificially narrow.
In a drama covering years of campaigning, characters like Colin give a sense of the ordinary conversations and community support that sit between the major public moments. Not every useful role in this kind of story needs to be a headline figure.
Matthew Roberts as Andy Duncan
Matthew Roberts plays Andy Duncan. His part supports the broader social and institutional setting around Anne's campaign, helping the series move through different stages of the story without relying only on the main family scenes.
Lilly Shepherd as Sara Williams
Lilly Shepherd plays Sara Williams. Her character is important because Anne's campaign did not happen in isolation from family life; it affected the people still trying to live inside that grief.
For viewers who are more interested in the emotional side of the drama, Sara's scenes are worth watching closely. They show how a public fight for justice can also create private pressure at home.
Campbell Wallace as Kevin Williams
Campbell Wallace plays Kevin Williams, Anne's son. Although much of the drama takes place after Hillsborough, Kevin remains the reason the story exists and the person Anne refuses to let be reduced to a case file.
The series uses Kevin's presence carefully. He is not just a name attached to a campaign; the family scenes help viewers understand the individual life behind Anne's determination.
Which Anne Characters Are Based on Real People?
Many of the characters in Anne are based on real people connected to the Hillsborough disaster and the long campaign that followed. That is why the casting feels different from a normal fictional drama: the actors are portraying people whose lives, grief, and public work are part of recent British history.
Anne Williams and her family
Anne Williams and her family were real people. Anne campaigned for years after the death of her son Kevin, challenging the account of what happened and pushing for the evidence around his final moments to be properly heard.
The family focus is what keeps the drama from becoming only a legal or political story. Steve, Sara, and Kevin Williams help show the daily cost of loss, not just the public face of campaigning.
Andy Burnham and political support
Andy Burnham is based on the real politician. In the series, he represents the stage where the Hillsborough families' campaign gained stronger national political attention.
The useful distinction is this: Burnham's role is part of the public support around the campaign, but the drama still places the drive and persistence with Anne and the families. That balance matters if you are watching for the true-story context.
Sheila Coleman and Phil Scraton
Sheila Coleman and Phil Scraton are based on real people whose work was tied to evidence, research, and support for the families. Their characters show the practical side of a justice campaign: finding records, questioning weak accounts, and refusing to let important details disappear.
This is one of the easiest parts of the cast to underestimate. In a shorter drama, research can look less dramatic than family conflict, but the series makes clear that careful evidence work was essential.
Hillsborough survivors and families
The survivors and bereaved families shown in Anne are rooted in real experiences, even when a viewer may not know every name immediately. Some roles point to specific people, while others help represent the wider community affected by Hillsborough.
That broader perspective is important. Anne Williams' story is the centre of the drama, but it was never the only story; the series keeps returning to the shared pain, memory, and determination of many people who wanted the truth recognised.
Conclusion
The cast of Anne works best when you understand what each group of characters is doing: Maxine Peake and the Williams family carry the emotional heart, while the supporting actors show the campaign, evidence, survivor testimony, and political pressure around them. If you are watching the series for the first time, learn the family names first, then connect Coleman, Scraton, Burnham, and the survivor/family roles to the wider fight for justice.