I Am Ruth (Channel 4) is seasonal fare in the strictest sense: a wintry tale of hunkering down to survive emotional blizzard after emotional blizzard and hoping to emerge into the pale, watery sunlight when the storm has passed.
This tale of a middle-aged mother locked in an almost mute struggle with her closed-off teenage daughter is the latest in Dominic Savage’s increasingly magisterial chronicles of female experience. Kate Winslet is the mother, Ruth (a name with biblical connotations of patience and compassion, both of which are needed here and tested to their limits). Her sullen offspring, Freya, is played by Winslet’s real-life daughter, Mia Threapleton. There’s no need to worry – they are equally brilliant in their respective roles.
