This Is Us - Season One (2016 Creator Dan Fogelman)

Milo Ventimiglia, Mandy Moore, Sterling Brown, Chrissy Metz, Justin Hartley, Susan Kelechi Watson, Chris Sullivan, Ron Cephas Jones (who was in the Ryan Gosling Half Nelson, as well as Sweet and Lowdown, but not The Wire, as my charming co-watcher contests).

It has great audacious moments of time jump, for example when we meet older mom Rebecca... but she's no longer with Jack... what's happened?

Great moment between Kevin's dodgy actor girlfriend Olivia, played by Janet Montgomery, and William:

Olivia: "How does it feel to be dying?"

There's a great slow beat from Ron Cephas Jones, before he says:

"It feels... like all these beautiful pieces of life are flying around me and I'm trying to catch them. When my grand-daughter falls asleep in my lap, I try to catch the feeling of her breathing against me. And when I make my son laugh, I try to catch the sound of him laughing, how it rolls up from his chest. But the pieces are moving faster now and I can't catch them all. I can feel them slipping through my fingertips. And soon where there used to be my grand-daughter breathing and my son laughing there will be... nothing."

"Oh."

"I know it feels like you have all the time in the world, but you don't. So stop playing it so cool, catch the moments of your life, catch them while you're young, and quick, because sooner than you know it, you'll be old and slow, and they'll be no more of them to catch. And when a nice boy who adores you offers you pie, say thank you."

Great moment where the family find the obstetrician who delivered the twins in hospital having suffered from a car accident, and Randall gives him a snow globe.

William's return to Memphis, featuring Brian Tyree Henry, and death, memorable, as is Randall's dream that Jack and William met, William's last postcard to Beth - 'the daughter I never had'. Strong Elizabethtown vibes here. Kevin's play "Where once stood a Manny now stands a man!" That long single take argument at the end.

Alexandra Breckenridge (Virgin River) plays Kevin's ex. Mandy Moore was initially a singer / songwriter so we can be reasonably certain that she performs her own numbers.

Originally made for NBC in the US, broadcast here first on Channel 4, now streaming on Amazon Prime.

Dudley Randall, highly regarded black poet.

That's the first 18 episodes done, anyway.