The Handmaid’s Tale
drama / 9.00pm / C4
‘Now i’m awake to the world,’ says Offred. ‘I was asleep before.’ Her friend, Ofglen (Alexis Bledel), has been taken away – Offred poignantly reflects that she doesn’t even know her real name – and charged with ‘gender treachery’ and Offred is interrogated about their relationship. There are more flashbacks to ‘before’, when Offred/june’s bank account was frozen and she was forbidden from working, along with other women. As uncomfortable and unsettling as this can be to watch (and tonight’s episode is particularly so), it’s worth remembering that many of the atrocities committed in this dystopian future have already taken place somewhere in the world.