Imagine this happening in a bog-standard drama – ITV’s Liar, say – and the horrified look that would spread across the actress’s face. This realisation comes to Coel’s character, Arabella, at the end of episode one. In 2016, her drink was spiked in a bar and the next day she had a flashback of a man looming over her. I May Destroy You begins as a fictionalised story of Coel’s own sexual assault. She is the writer, executive producer, co-director and star, and she turned down a £1 million offer from Netflix because they would not allow her to retain copyright.

That’s not to say she’s presenting us with an unedited stream of consciousness, because she produced 191 drafts before she was satisfied. The show is autobiographical, but that description doesn’t do it justice Coel isn’t so much writing down her thoughts as letting them spill out in an act of therapy as well as creation. Just when you think you have a handle on where it’s going, she does something utterly unexpected. Coel has taken the conventions of episodic drama and binned them. But Michaela Coel’s 12-part series, which reaches its finale on BBC One tonight, is the real deal. 'Groundbreaking' is an overused word in television. But then along came I May Destroy You, making Normal People look like a quaint romance from the last century. Based on Sally Rooney’s hit novel, it was a sublime piece of television with two captivating leads, and deserved all the plaudits thrown at it. For a while there, it looked like Normal People was going to be the drama of the year.

I may destroy you