‘Doctor Who’ Writer Russell T. Davies to Pen BBC Family Drama ‘Years and Years’
“Doctor Who” scribe Russell T. Davies is time-traveling once again, this time for a family drama set in a near-future, fast-changing world. Davies is teaming with “Happy Valley” producer Red Production Company on “Years and Years,” which has been greenlit by the BBC.
The show will follow the lives of a single family, the Lyons, over 15 years in a Britain rocked by political change and economic and technological advances. “When their lives all converge on one crucial night in 2019, the story accelerates into the future, following the lives and loves of the Lyons over the next 15 years,” the producers said.
In a near future in which Britain has left the EU, America is isolationist, and China increasingly powerful, the story also takes in the rise to power of Vivienne Rook, a new breed of politician, entertainer, and rebel.
Studiocanal-owned Red and Davies are frequent collaborators. He and Red’s founder, Nicola Shindler, have worked together on shows including “Queer as Folk.”
Davies’ three-part political drama “A Very English Scandal,” starring Hugh Grant and Ben Whishaw, wrapped on BBC One on Sunday and will soon launch on Amazon in the U.S. As for “Years and Years,” Davies said: “I’ve wanted to write this for 20 years or so. And as the world accelerates like crazy around us, I realized I’d better get on with it.”
Shindler said the new series is a drama for our times. “The script is fantastic, and taps into the anxieties of the climate we are currently living in, speculating how the dynamics of cultural and political change affects our lives – and the lives of our families.”
The six-part drama show will go out on British pubcaster the BBC’s flagship BBC One channel. Production starts later this year. Studiocanal will distribute internationally.
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