MAM OF MYSTERY
Suranne Jones and Eve Best play estranged sisters reunited when their late mother’s secret life is revealed
MARYLAND
ITV, 9pm
IT starts with a death, as all the best dramas do.
An elderly woman called Mary is found collapsed on the beach on the Isle of Man, having hit her head on a rock.
The emotional fall-out for the woman’s two daughters is the essence of this three-part relationship drama created by award-winning actress Suranne Jones and screenwriter Anne-Marie O’Connor.
Suranne plays Becca, while Eve Best plays Rosaline, sisters who have grown apart over the years and forged ahead with separate lives in Manchester and London.
But the discovery of their mother’s body reunites them.
They arrive in a place they have never visited and with no idea why their mother was there.
Eventually the sisters begin to unravel the long-held secrets of a woman they thought they knew, whilst keeping their own secrets.
Unbeknown to them, Mary had been living a mysterious, second life.
And the sisters have their own private battles to deal with. Becca’s marriage to her husband Jim is struggling, while their daughter pushes her parents to the edge.
Workaholic Rosaline is dealing with the stress of another health scare.
A stellar cast includes Stockard Channing (The West Wing and Grease), who plays Cathy, Mary’s larger-than-life friend on the island, and George Costigan as Mary’s husband Richard. Hugh Quarshie, Dean Lennox Kelly and Andrew Knott also star.
A moving and funny look at family dynamics, questioning how much we really know about those closest to us.
Continues tomorrow night and concludes on Wednesday.