Sunday People

You’d be Cuckoo to miss this one

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ACTRESS Jada Pinkett Smith

hosts an online chat show with her mum and daughter called Red Table Talk.

It’s tucked away on Facebook Watch and is like a very earnest version of Loose Women.

This week, Jada finally addressed THAT moment at the Oscars in a special episode honouring

people living with alopecia.

Will stayed away from it, but Jada said: “My deepest hope is that these two intelligen­t, capable men [Will Smith and Chris Rock] have an opportunit­y to heal, talk this out and reconcile… until then, Will and I are continuing to figure out this thing called life together.”

But the jury’s still out on whether Will can work again…

IF you remember the film Village of the Damned, you may have some chilling memories of alien babies taking over a quiet town.

The 1957 John Wyndham novel behind that movie has now inspired a TV series, with The Midwich Cuckoos starting on Sky Max on Thursday.

Picture the scene: you live in a sleepy village, where the views are idyllic, people are friendly and nobody locks their doors. One night, the weather turns bleak and there’s a strange spirit in the air.

Everyone collapses, falling to the ground and there’s a communicat­ions blackout.

Nobody can leave – because they’re all unconsciou­s – and nobody is safe to enter.

The next morning, everyone wakes up and tries to figure out what on Earth happened on this fateful night. Soon, they discover that all of the young women are pregnant, and the babies aren’t human…

If that doesn’t freak you out next time there’s a thundersto­rm at night, I don’t know what will.

The series stars Keeley Hawes as a child psychologi­st, who had left Midwich that evening to visit the Big Smoke – but her daughter Cassie had stayed home.

Mysterious

Keeley is reliably brilliant and you’re instantly rooting for her as she desperatel­y tries to reach her daughter. Casting Keeley is always a smart move – she even makes travel adverts more interestin­g.

Meanwhile, Max Beesley plays DCI Paul Haynes, the detective investigat­ing these bizarre goings-on.

His wife was already pregnant before the aliens arrived, and he’s anxious for her, as well as his neighbours.

We also meet a young couple who have just moved into Midwich, hoping they might finally be able to start a family.

Of course, they didn’t quite expect it to happen in this mysterious way.

Although I don’t have the stomach for horror and am quite picky with sci-fi, I am enjoying this show so much more than I thought I would.

While there is obviously a deeply sinister, unsettling element to the story, you won’t need to hide behind your sofa.

And it’s not one of those ridiculous­ly complicate­d plots that you need to keep rewinding to understand.

Instead, it’s a gripping drama about a group of women facing the most extraordin­ary new reality, all the time wondering what these aliens actually want.

Are they out to destroy us, or do they have something else in mind?

I have no idea where it’s going and I can’t wait to find out…

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