The stairs of my Edwardian home are steep and the tiles at the bottom, hard and unforgiving. My 10-month-old squirms in my arms as I stand at the top of them and I see myself drop him, his tender head smashing as he strikes the ground.

Sleep-deprived and in chronic pain, I am riveted to that top step, but my 3-year-old’s downstairs, calling. With one hand on the banister and the second clutching my baby, I sit and twist so that he’s safe against the stairwell before slowly inching down.

Fast forward 16 years and Diane Kruger stands at the top of a flight of stairs she sees tipping and swaying. She grips a newborn, sits on her bottom and shuffles down. The scene opens episode five of Little Disasters , in which Kruger plays Jess, an affluent mother-of-three plagued by intrusive thoughts

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