Angels and demons of the North Pick of the day

SEAN Bean is dressed in Catholic robes, a softly-spoken Northern priest giving a sermon. This is clearly not the Sean Bean we’re used to – the one who battles villains in action roles. But Father Michael Kerrigan does have his own demons to battle. Mid-sermon he’s having terrible flashbacks to a traumatic childhood. Within 30 seconds we realise Kerrigan is a man with a dark past, one of the key ingredients of a gritty drama, right? And this six-parter is written by Jimmy Mcgovern, the writer who gave us Cracker, The Accused and The Street, so you can relax, you’re in good hands. Back to the story, and a woman in Father Kerrigan’s congregation is clearly agitated and furiously tapping away on a phone that keeps ringing. Christina Fitzsimmons (Anna Friel) is supposed to be at her job in a betting shop, and she wasn’t banking on an hour-long mass before the meeting about her daughter’s first communion. Running to work, she’s greeted by her irate boss, who’s not impressed that Christina took £60 out of the till and left an IOU. “You’re a thief,” she accuses, to Christina’s protestations. And in a scene that escalates pretty quickly, it all ends with a scrap, a punch in the face and a bloody nose, while a man playing on a fruit machine nearby doesn’t even bat an eyelid. It’s the start of a fairly bad day and an unfortunate chain of events for Christina, leaving her struggling to feed her three children or put a roof over their heads. And that’s before tragedy strikes for the single mum. Meanwhile, our kindly priest has his own problems, including a dying mother and the aforementioned flashbacks. But can he help a woman on the edge?

ON MASS Sean Bean as Kerrigan

STRUGGLE Friel as Christina