History tends to look at the past with a very selective eye. Phyllis Schlafly, for example, did not seem to have a starring role in the remembrances of modern politics, even though she was a guest star in the emergence of US President Donald Trump in 2016, and he a guest star at her funeral in the same year.

Mrs America, the dramatisation of the battle to bring the Equal Rights Amendment into law and the conservative backlash that killed it off, brings this divisive and complex woman back to life in vibrant colour. She was a figure whose influence not only shaped American conservative politics at the critical juncture of the 1960s and 1970s, but whose postscript is an echo still felt today.

Television can be uncommonly generous by swathing historical figures in the flesh of great actors, and on that front Mrs America goes above and beyond: Rose Byrne as feminist icon Gloria Steinem, Uzo Aduba as politician Shirley Chisholm, Elizabeth Banks as activist Jill Ruckelshaus, Margo Martindale as lawyer-turned-politician Bella Abzug, and Tracey Ullman, in a magnificent turn, as feminist writer Betty Friedan.

But no one wins here more than Schlafly, brought effortlessly to life by Cate Blanchett. Measuring great performances is an imprecise science, but this feels visceral in an unexpected and surprising way. Blanchett's track record speaks for itself, but here something else is happening. Every time Blanchett's Schlafly glides perfectly into the frame, there is simply nowhere else to look.