HotTV CHOICE

There’s a disturbance tonight in BBC One’s new drama THE WAY (9pm), centred on the Welsh town of Port Talbot.

Fearing for the future of its steelworks (bitterly ironic, given that this story, directed by Michael Sheen, was written before such uncertainty became a sobering reality), people have taken to the streets to express their displeasure.

It’s a protest which kind of escalates. And then it escalates further still, as protesters and police go head-on. Pretty soon, there’s civil unrest sweeping through the whole of Wales, causing the Government to take drastic action.

And would you believe, it’s all the fault of one family, the Driscolls? Or, rather, it isn’t, not to that extent, but social media has made it appear that way, making this fairly ordinary bunch look like a danger to society – and forcing them to flee the country.

With a cast including Steffan Rhodri, Mali Harries, Sophie Melville and Callum Scott Howells – plus fleeting appearances from Sheen himself – it finds this messed-up bunch taking ever more desperate steps to secure their safety, but with no clear idea of how the hell this is all going to end, either for themselves or for the land they’ve left behind.

Meanwhile, over on ITV1, Joanne Froggatt stars in a disturbing three-parter called BREATHTAKING (9pm). Playing out nightly, it finds her in the role of acute medicine consultant Dr Abbey Henderson, part of a hospital team struggling to cope with momentous challenges in the first few weeks of the Covid-19 pandemic.