Adventure Ahead: Peg is 71 and she’s on a mission – quite literally – to the furthest reaches of the universe.

The ‘mission’ isn’t ever made clear, but that isn’t necessary. We are treated to an exploration of the process of aging, delivered by one of the finest actors alive today. That gut-wrenching feeling of waking up to the realisation that your life has been lived in fear, and that all the ‘could-have-beens’ now never will be.

I was so excited to get round to the Helen Mirren episode of Solos that I didn’t immediately clock the fact that the name in the title of this episode is one we’ve heard before. The realisation of the connection crept up on me slowly and was perfectly set up and executed, leading to my face doing a good impression of that ‘shocked cat’ meme we all know and hate. Episode 3 is a sequel of sorts to episode 2 and we don’t get a happy ending.

A few cherries that are dropped help us to understand that this is set 60+ years after the second episode, and it’s strange to hear an older person talk about Tik Toks as a thing of their youth, although somehow we’ve cured cancer, so that’s good. None of Tom’s careful planning, however, could prevent whatever sustained abuse that obviously shaped Peg after the premature death of her mother that came shortly after his.

Clearly the grandmother who raised her in Bedford always made her feel as though Peg was ‘a bother.’ A lifetime of deference followed and the invisibility of the elderly in society makes you feel genuine anger for those who suffer such indignity. ‘Little things add up’ and there’s a lesson in not wishing your life away here.

Now, Peg is ‘seen’, even if only by a machine without eyes, as she hums a tune that could be about the ‘Major Tom’ who left her life all those years ago.

Verdict: Strap in for a powerful treatise on the perennial human trauma of mortality from British acting royalty.  Only if it’s not a bother. 9/10

Claire Smith