Masterpiece, Elizabeth Is Missing

Sunday, Jan. 3, at 9 PM

Also airs on Fusion on Sunday, Jan. 10, at noon

Two-time Academy Award–winner Glenda Jackson stars as a woman desperately trying to solve two mysteries as she declines ever deeper into dementia. Playing feisty grandmother Maud Horsham, who lives alone despite early-stage Alzheimer’s, Jackson is joined by Maggie Steed as Maud’s only friend, Elizabeth, who ominously goes missing, leading to one of the mysteries at the heart of the drama. Helen Behan plays Maud’s dutiful daughter, Helen, and Nell Williams is Maud’s doting granddaughter, Katy.

The other mystery in Maud’s mind is a puzzle from her past, kindled when she unearths the top of an old cosmetics compact while gardening with Elizabeth. The discovery takes Maud back to her teenaged self (played by Liv Hill). Like many younger siblings, Maud looked up to her big sister, Sukey (Sophie Rundle), considering her the height of glamour; plus she had a crush on her sister’s husband, Frank (Mark Stanley). This childhood idyll ended with Sukey’s failure to come home one night in 1949, never to be seen again.