I DIDN’T watch much of Cold Feet first time round.

It arrived and took off during my mid teens so there was other stuff going on - and I probably wouldn’t have grasped the nuances of adult life anyway.

Despite meaning to have a restrospective binge, since this might involve physically visiting a shop to buy a boxset of some sort, it hasn’t happened.

But, what is darned genius about the return, more than a decade after the original series ended and now in its third or fourth series, is the fact it pretty much holds its own.

Apart from needing to know who was married to who, and the fact one of the main original characters was tragically killed leaving a tiny son , you don’t really need to have watched much previously to enjoy it in its current form.

Obviously, the fact I am myself a middle-aged woman, means I probably feel more of an affinity with the gang these days.

Yet the real joy of this show is how it tackles quite heavy subjects head on without being too morbid about it.

Cancer, the Me too world currently quite rightly live in, mental health, financial pressures and teen pregnancy are all in the mix.

Some of it is pretty unflinching - but also very funny too.

Adam, James Nesbitt, and his recent slap across the wrists for inappropriate behaviour was a case in point.

In just one episode they nailed it - and they weren’t afraid to show him in an unfavourable light either.

So, thumbs up to everyone involved in Cold Feet - and my other perennial warm-hearted drama Call the Midwife which in similar vein never shies away from hard-hitting topics whilst also leaving you feeling a bit warm and fuzzy inside.

There is a real risk with these sort of retro dramas of making it look like life was better in some way.

Which Call the Midwife doesn’t ever seem to do.

Now in its ninth series, in the early days they probably averaged about three fairly graphic births per episode causing my husband, not particularly a fan, to marvel how the BBC get away with such gory content on a primetime Sunday night slot.

Presumably because it is dressed up as a warm-hearted family show.

Which, to my detriment, I learned it is not when I had to quickly whisk my ten-year-old out of the room as an unfortunate mother heamorrhaged on screen.

And yet, it is probably still one of the best programmes available to view right now.

That and the Crown, my having just completed the third series.

It’s uncanny how they manage to capture the look and feel of the Royal family in general.

The actor playing Charles, is spot on without ever coming close to caricature while Olivia Colman continues to just be marvellous in everything.

She could not be further removed in personality from the Queen, whenever I see her interviewed she cries while, if the show is to be believed, the Queen rarely does.

Colman had to listen to music rather than fellow actors in emotional scenes, to avoid bursting into tears.

I did think this might be cheating, what did Laurence Olivier famously say to Dustin Hoffman ? “My dear boy, why don’t you just act ?”

But acting or not, turning off your emotions as a mother and a person must be hugely hard.

It is basically what the Queen has had to do her entire life.