In a montage of iconic women from Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Jane Goodall, to Arundhati Roy, a video clip of Margaret Atwood emerges. She looks towards the interviewer and says: “When you’re a teenager, you’re acutely worried of what people think of you, but I think now you can just have more fun.”

In this clever way, Sharon Horgan lands viewers straight into her new show Youth (streaming on HBO Max and Now TV) and protagonist Alex’s “no fucks era”. The series connects Alex’s post-divorce story with her son Ruarí’s (Aran Murphy) journey into adulthood.

We meet literary agent, Alex (Horgan) doom-scrolling on the sofa. She’s late to a meeting with a new writer and anticipating her son’s graduation from secondary school. The stress of multiple life moments culminates in lockjaw, the title of the first episode.

Alex’s GP patronisingly explains that it’s........

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