Of the

C4, 9pm

SPACE travel and Sean Penn – what more could you possibly want from a television drama?

This glossy, cinematic new American series will hook you from the off.

With the feel of a big budget space movie, and life and death situations, it makes for tense viewing.

It starts with Oscar winner Sean Penn, as former mission commander Tom Hagerty, looking pretty grumpy at home with his dog. This is set in the near future, so you’ll notice details about the tech, with everything in his house completely remote controlled. He tells his TV screen to switch on – it does. And it turns out that practically everyone in America is watching the imminent launch of the first manned mission to Mars. The Providence crew are suited up and waiting in the rocket while their families gather in the grandstand’s front row seats. Aerospace magnate Laz Ingram, played by Natascha McElhone, has been planning this mission for months and does some interviews as the tension mounts. The crew will spend two-and-a-half years in orbit, with around 18 months on Mars.

We’re not exactly sure at first what Hagerty’s relationship is with the space crew, but he wants to speak to them before they set off. “Go make some history,” he tells them. It’s evidently easy to speak to astronauts from your living room in the near future. Following the astronauts, their families and the ground team on Earth, this is an exciting and emotional opening episode that will leave you desperate for more.