Look who’s got titanic troubles ahead

Kate Winslet is outstanding (alongside her real-life daughter, Mia) in a disturbing drama that explores the perils of social media

I AM RUTH

Thursday, Channel 4, 9pm

They’re two of Britain’s biggest stars – but Kate Winslet and Sheridan Smith are far from the glitz and glamour of showbusiness as they grapple with the challenging realities of mental health in two outstanding new dramas this week.

In I Am Ruth, Winslet not only takes the role of the title character but also turns writer, creating the story along with director Dominic Savage

(in the latest of his strand of I Am… films, previously featuring Suranne Jones, Vicky McClure and Lesley Manville, among others).

In an engrossing yet unsettling and all-too-topical tale for our times, Ruth (Winslet) is a mother growing increasingly worried by the way in which her teenage daughter Freya (Winslet’s own daughter, Mia Threapleton, right with her mother) is drawn deeper and deeper into the social-media universe.

Countless parents watching will nod with weary familiarity as we see

Freya seemingly unable to look away from her mobile phone and trapped in a downward spiral of anxiety and depression, thanks to the insecurities over body image and social behaviour induced by the content she’s exposed to almost continuously.

Ruth desperately wants to help her daughter escape back to reality and have a greater chance at happiness – yet the harder she tries, the more it seems Freya pushes her away, in a battle that’s being played out in millions of family homes across the country every day.

Already on a critical high after her Emmy-award-winning performance in last year’s Mare Of Easttown, Winslet is clearly in a purple patch of brilliance with her career, and here she’s as good as she’s ever been, playing a mother battling with the vicissitudes of life.

But it’s her daughter Mia who’s the revelation, and with another starring role for the 22-year-old – in the new series of Dangerous Liaisons (on Lionsgate+) – it can be confidently said the apple has not fallen far from the tree in the Winslet clan.

Just as urgent but striking a rather lighter note, Rosie Molloy Gives Up Everything (Wednesday, Sky Comedy/ Showcase, 10pm) stars Sheridan

Smith in the title role: a professional woman afflicted with almost every variety of addiction – ranging from sex, cigarettes and harmful substances to Terry’s Chocolate

Orange – who is forced to confront her demons when a crisis threatens to push her over the edge.

Written by Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps creator Susan Nickson, the six-part black comedy is a prime showcase for the bravura talent of Smith.

You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. And then you’ll laugh again.