Sheridan Smith in BBC One's Care

Last year, Jimmy McGovern left us aghast and peaking through our fingers as Sean Bean's Catholic priest and Anna Friel's working mother of three fell apart in the BBC's Broken. So buckle up everyone, because McGovern is back with a troublesome new drama starring the electrifying Sheridan Smith.

Smith, who last year starred in The Moorside – the true story about a social worker who rallies a local town to help find missing-girl Shannon Matthews – returns to the BBC based on the real-life experiences of McGovern's screenplay co-writer Gilian Juckes.

Care tells the story of Jenny (Smith), a single mother raising two daughters alone after her husband walks out on the family. Jenny's solitary support system, her mother Mary, is the reason Jenny is able to hold down her full-time job at the supermarket. Her world falls apart after Mary suffers a stroke and develops dementia, shattering the lives of both Jenny and her sister Claire, played by Smith's Gavin and Stacey co-star Sinead Keenan.

Piers Wenger, Controller of BBC Drama, says: 'It’s always an honour to work with Jimmy McGovern, here joining forces with Gillian Juckes on her first script for a television drama. Together they tell a truly remarkable story of one woman’s battle to get the best care for her mother. The cast, led by the wonderful Sheridan Smith, will portray this poignant story with the warmth and gravitas it deserves.'

Filming on the new series will shortly start in and around Liverpool.