DRAMA

THE FIRST, CHANNEL FOUR, THURSDAY 9PM

Beau Willimon’s, of House of Cards, eight-part drama starts with the alunch of the first manned flight to Mars, apparently in the very near future - not an implausible as you might imagine, as Elon Musk has targeted 2024.

Watching at home is Tom (Sean Penn) who, we later learn, selected and trained the five astronauts, after liftoff he comes to the space centre, meets the crew’s families and interrupts a meeting to tell Raz (Natascha McElhone) the reserved English CEO of the private firm behind the project - that she should be talking to them, too.