'First Woman' Aims for the Moon
ITV has seen the population's sudden return to being fascinated by space, and turned it into a police procedural.
Space is big, as Douglas Adams once famously proclaimed. Not "a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space" big, but "caught the entire planet's imagination again" big, ever since NASA's most recent trip to the moon, and the extraordinary photos that resulted. Some networks were already in a good position to take advantage of space's sudden ascension back to being vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big in the minds of the public. Both the BBC and PBS literally were in the room filming during the entire trip and have already debuted insta-documentaries; Apple TV just finished a new season of For All Mankind and is about to debut Star City at the end of May 2026.
However, the rest of the entertainment landscape is racing to catch up. ITV is the first out of the gate, with German co-producer ZDF Germany on board, for the most ITV take on space imaginable: What if Space, but a Police Procedural?
That's the general plot of First Woman, a star-studded series ITV announced all of two weeks after the return of Artemis II from its successful mission. Starring Ashley Walters (Adolescence), Jennifer Ehle (Pride & Prejudice), Alex Hassell (Rivals), and Andrea Riseborough (Alice & Jack), the series focuses on the first woman to be sent into space, who then promptly disappears. How does one disappear off a space station without people noticing? (I suppose the future means upgrading "women in refrigerators" to "women out of airlocks.")
Here's the series synopsis:
When Ben Reith is woken in his London home to be told that his wife Claire has gone missing, it’s the start of a global news story, because Claire is an astronaut crewing the UK’s first moonbase and she’s disappeared into the long lunar night…
Claire is the first woman to set foot on the moon. A biologist taking part in a groundbreaking research project, her disappearance throws suspicion on her fellow astronauts and China’s rival base. With hundreds of thousands of miles between them, can Ben uncover the truth behind his wife's disappearance?
Waters stars as Reith with Riseborough as Claire. Ehle co-stars as Helen Sadler, the investigator with the UK Space Flight Authority, tasked with uncovering what happened to Claire; Hassell will feature as the Prime Minister, Christopher Scott. Further casting is expected to be announced when filming nears completion.
The series was created by Lydia Yeoman (Curfew) and George Oakes, both of whom wrote the scripts alongside Ben Schiffer. Director Philip Martin (Scoop) helms all six installments with Julia Stannard producing. Broderick Johnson, Andrew Kosove, Scott Parish, Diego Piasek, Steven Johnson, and Ben Roberts serve as Executive Producers.
First Woman is currently filming in Belfast. It is expected to debut in 2027. It does not currently have an American distributor.
Sign up for full access to Telly Visions' recaps and reviews!
