CARE

AS EMOTIONAL AS IT GETS

SUN 9 DEC, 9PM, BBC1

If Alison Steadman doesn’t get a BAFTA for this, we’ll eat our Christmas crackers. It doesn’t make for an easy watch – especially for viewers who have experience of the horrors of dementia. At the very beginning, Jenny’s (Sheridan Smith) mum Mary (Steadman) is out with her grandkids when she suffers a stroke. A distraught Jenny is faced with a mum who not only doesn’t recognise her, but can’t speak and is utterly terrified. She goes on to develop dementia, which is heartbreaking.