"Intellectually and morally I made my peace with it very quickly," she says. "But when it comes to actually showing up on set and taking your dress off, it's a big pill to swallow."

Like The Sopranos, Tell Me You Love Me features a shrink as a central character trying to make sense of it all. But I am worried about what Cynthia Mort, the new show's creator, has in mind for her Dr May Foster.

This is a handsome woman in late middle age with tumbling locks of gray hair and wrinkles testifying to a life well lived. Fine. But we have already had one scene in which she gets it on with her retiree hubby, her head disappearing below his pyjama line.

'Elder sex' may be all the rage now that horny baby-boomers are greying. But come on, HBO, surely you can leave that to our imaginations?