I Am Maria

Channel 4, 9pm

Anyone who watched the superb bittersweet BBC sitcom Mum knows that there’s no one better than Lesley Manville when it comes to portraying characters who keep their emotions hidden from the outside world.

In the final instalment in this series of female-led, one-off dramas from writerdirector Dominic Savage she depicts a woman who is a veritable iceberg, with what’s above the surface hardly betraying anything of the depths beneath.

It should be a time of celebration for Maria (Manville, right) as she reaches her 60th birthday. But she is stifled within the confines of her long marriage to John (Michael Gould). Will she find the courage to grab a chance at happiness – or will the fear of change prevent her from shattering the pretence that she has maintained for years?