Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance – the five classic stages of grief raise their heads as Chas and his terminally ill partner, Joe, spend their ninth anniversary in the country.

This is a neat little story of five short acts, one for each of those stages, which are cleverly signposted onscreen. Chas (Reece Shearsmith) is an ex-wannabe popstar who failed to make a career of it after one very minor chart entry. Warning for Amazon Alexa owners – at one point dialogue in this had her misidentify the title and try to sign me up for their Music Unlimited service, so you may want to unplug her beforehand! He’s spent the last nine years in a relationship with Joe (Steve Pemberton) who has cancer and an unspecified amount of time left. Joe insists on continuing to work, which takes him away from home, so their weekends together are precious.

Briefly joining them at Joe’s countryside getaway is housekeeper Mollie, played by Pemberton’s Benidorm co-star Sheila Reid. She provides some words of comfort for Joe, as well as being responsible for letting so many ants into the place.

These are lovely performances, Shearsmith particularly good as a youngish man who’s given up nine years of his life to care for the man he loves and has paid a price for that. Pemberton’s Joe is more emotionally reserved, an older and quieter man not given to wearing his heart on his sleeve. At least not quite yet…

Fabulous episode that is, as usual, entirely not what you think, but with a genuinely surprising ending (although obviously not quite as surprising as last week’s episode). I had a skim through it again and the clues are there, but they’re mostly in the performances, nothing is telegraphed but you’re not quite seeing what you think you are. Almost certainly the best of this season.

Verdict: After a season that’s been rather wobbly they saved the best for last with this emotional little journey. 9/10

Andy Smith