THE BEEB’S ACE NEW DRAMA

BBC1, SUNDAY 30 SEPTEMBER, 9PM

While it’s a cliché to talk about this being the Golden Age of TV, what better way is there to describe the cornucopia of outstanding dramas that are flooding the schedules and demanding our attention so completely? Just as we draw breath from the thrill fest that was Phoebe Waller-bridge’s outstanding adaptation of Killing Eve, along comes this four-part psychological drama, written by Jacquelin Perske and adapted from the novel by Helen Fitzgerald, to suck you right in.

THE PREMISE

Joanna (Victoria’s Jenna Coleman) is a new mum who is desperately struggling to cope with the relentless crying of her newborn baby. While her political adviser husband Alistair (Top Of The Lake’s Ewen Leslie) does little to help – “he works, he gets earplugs” – Joanna flounders on her own, receiving little support from her friends and judgemental comments from other mothers. When the couple have to fly to Oz, so Alistair can fight his ex wife for custody of their teenage daughter, Joanna dreads the long-haul flight with their young infant. But as it turns out, the nightmare that awaits them Down Under is far worse than anything they could possibly experience in the air.

THE VERDICT

While we held our breaths for the first 20 minutes of Bodyguard, the entire opening episode of The Cry filled us with queasy anxiety, as our concern over Joanna’s (played perfectly by Coleman) deteriorating mental state escalates and we fear for her child’s safety. With the multiple timelines showing her standing trial in court, we know something really bad has happened , but we can’t quite grasp what or by whom, and the result is yet another deeply tense, riveting, must-see drama.