Sitcom queen Mary Tyler Moore had her first meaty TV dramatic acting role and broke one of the final taboos on American TV - dealing with breast cancer - when she played a famous newsreader undergoing a mastectomy in First, You Cry. Here it's the turn of Meredith Baxter, who also became a familiar face in America through playing Michael J Fox's mother for seven years on the hit sitcom Family Ties, to go down the same road. Again the central character is a journalist, this time a magazine writer, Joyce Wadler, who fought her cancer with good humour and intelligence, and wrote a best-selling book and later this teleplay. Director Betty Thomas (still best known as Sgt Lucy Bates on Hill Street Blues, but now a director of both TV and big-screen movies, keeps a confident hand on things. Above average for a 'problem of the week' drama.

©ipc tx. Film content from TVTimes