MARE OF EASTTOWN

Amodern star of the silver screen, Kate Winslet (right) can boast an Oscar among her many awards, as well as billions of dollars in box office takings. But her roots actually lie in television: her career started on children’s shows and included an early appearance on Casualty in 1993, four years before Titanic.

Now she returns to the small screen for the first time since the mini-series adaptation of Mildred Pierce a decade ago to take the lead in a gripping, gritty police drama.

Given her A-list status, Winslet can pick and choose her projects, but Mare Of Easttown is not a vanity project. The star completely eschews glamour, appearing largely make-up free and with her hair scraped back into a severe ponytail to play the title character, Mare Sheehan, a police detective in the backwater Pennsylvania town from which she’s never quite escaped. All the hard years of her life are etched on her face, and there’s little relief away from the pressure and stress of her work, as her family is riven by conflict and problems.

Sharing her home with her mother – a constant source of grief – she also has to put up with an ex-partner living around the corner and, while only in her 40s, is also having to contend with being a grandmother.

Still, she hasn’t given up on enjoying life completely and is capable of sudden bouts of passion, embarking on an affair with Richard (Guy Pearce), a handsome writer who’s just arrived in town.

Easttown is a place where the past looms large. As the seven-part series begins, the town is preparing to celebrate the 25th anniversary of a basketball match in which Mare scored the winning points with a famous shot.

But there are also darker, more recent memories, in particular the death of a young drug-addicted prostitute, a mystery that remains unsolved after a year.

The girl’s grieving mother is angry and distraught, and Mare is ordered by her commanding officer to pursue the case with renewed vigour – though not alone. She is also saddled with a new detective partner who’s been brought in from out of town.

So the stage is set for an enthralling saga that is far from just another police procedural. The sense of Easttown as a living, breathing, close-knit community is compelling, and a breath-taking Winslet gives her heroine real power and depth in a performance that matches the best of her brilliant acting career.