Lesley Manville

The spirit of Mike Leigh is all over this flinty new sitcom - and not just because it stars Leigh regular Lesley Manville. In this opener, Manville's recently widowed Cathy prepares to attend her husband's funeral, accompanied by friends, family and obnoxious in-laws. Among the excellent cast (including a serenely growling Peter Mullan), Manville is superb as Cathy, keeping it together somehow - but a whisker away from screaming her heart out.

Preview: Mum's the comedy word for Lesley Manville

A bittersweet new sitcom gives Lesley Manville, the Bafta-nominated drama actress in BBC1's River, the chance to go for laughs as a widow who is trying to move on with her life. The six-part series created by the writers of Russell Tovey's comedy Him & Her appealed to Manville because she felt she was known for plying big emotional classic roles and this was a good chance to do something lighter that still had character and substance.

Radio Times review

A middle-aged woman is flying to Venice with her husband when their plane hits terrible turbulence. While he clutches her hand in silence she uses these 13 minutes for an interior monologue on his years of adultery.

Written by Jenny Eclair, this is an exquisitely crafted piece of work, where every simile, every quip, every moment of self-analysis is an orgasmic explosion of language. Lesley Manville sounds like she has so much fun voicing this. I know I did listening to it.