Years and Years
Created by Russell T Davies
Screenplay by Russell T Davies
Directed by Simon Cellan Jones, Lisa Mulcahy
Emma Thompson as Vivienne Rook MP, a charismatic and controversial businesswoman turned politician.
Rory Kinnear as Stephen Lyons, a financial advisor, who lives in London with his wife, Celeste, and their two daughters, Bethany and Ruby. He is also Daniel, Edith and Rosie’s older brother.
T’Nia Miller as Celeste Bisme-Lyons, an accountant and Stephen’s wife.
Russell Tovey as Daniel Lyons, a housing officer based in Manchester and Rosie, Stephen and Edith’s brother.
Jessica Hynes as Edith Lyons, a political activist and Stephen, Daniel and Rosie’s sister.
Ruth Madeley as Rosie Lyons, the youngest of the Lyons siblings, who has spina bifida. She is a single mother, has two sons, Lee and Lincoln, and works in a school cafeteria.
Anne Reid as Muriel Deacon, the Lyons siblings’ grandmother.
Dino Fetscher as Ralph Cousins, Daniel’s ex-husband, who is a primary school teacher.
Lydia West as Bethany Bisme-Lyons, Stephen and Celeste’s older daughter.
Jade Alleyne as Ruby Bisme-Lyons, Stephen and Celeste’s younger daughter.
Maxim Baldry as Viktor Goraya, a Ukrainian refugee, who develops a romantic relationship with Daniel.
Most shows dealing with dystopias take one of two approaches; either the collapse is happening (zombies, Japanese cast running and screaming), or it has already happened, and survivors are scouring the rubble for food, bullets and medications.
Russell T Davies (Doctor Who, Torchwood and much more) takes a more incremental course, one we’re much more likely to see in our lifetimes. The collapse is gradual, and life remains normal, albeit with new normalcy supplanting the older one every few months. It begins with Trump and the Chinese having a dick-waving contest over a fortified Chinese man-made island in the South China sea, and Trump ends up lobbing a nuke at the island, which in turn triggers a bank run the day after our viewpoint family have sold their home and have 1.2 million uninsured quid wiped out by the bank collapse. Trump doesn’t play any significant role beyond lobbing a nuclear strike (a fictional event thus far) and providing cover for fascist regimes to pop up all over Europe and the UK (unfortunately very non-fictional).
The family are buffeted by events, but carry on. The climate emergency means no chocolate on the shelves, and major flooding in the midlands which results in government mandates that those in larger homes with spare rooms must take in flood victims. Clamp-downs on ‘crime’ and maintaining order largely fall under the category of Someone Else’s Problem—until it isn’t.
The result is riveting and sometimes terrifying television. Some events are heartbreaking, and some provoke a wild sense of hope. There are moments that are emotionally devastating.
Yes, Davies, Jones and Mulcahy are brilliant in the writing and direction of this series. But it also provides stellar performances by some of Britain’s greatest actors. Emma Thompson, often acclaimed as the grand dame of acting, is outstanding as the slightly-off Vivienne Rook, a rabble-rouser who gets elected MP, and then becomes de facto prime minister in a hung parliament, and eventually becomes the actual PM. Thompson is charming, goofy, sinister and evil, usually all at the same time. A magnificent performance.
Rory Kinnear, noted for his role as Iago in Richard III and the genial department head in four James Bond movies, soars as a tormented and eventually broken man who manages to save England from itself by contemplating suicide.
Russell Tovey (Being Human) is stellar as the lover of Ukrainian refugee Viktor Goraya, who in turn is a man caught between fascistic millstones and a desire for revenge by a man who bitterly blames him for the death of a family member.
Anne Reid, the bigoted harridan from Last Tango in Halifax, shines as the aging but still occasionally sharp family matron, and T’Nia Miller brings extraordinary elegance and dignity to the series. For reasons I can’t explain here, it’s a wonderful irony that she starred in a movie some years back called The Disappeared.
The rest of the cast are equally good, but I can’t list every one of them.
This series is alternately horrifying, uplifting, grim and delightful. It’s certainly one of the best dramas I’ve seen this year.
BBC, and now on HBO.