麻豆社

What were your first thoughts when you read Russell T Davies script?
I met him before when we were all in London talking about doing it and I loved him so much - what an amazing guy and what an extraordinary writer. His writing is absolutely the level of George Orwell. It’s extraordinary, the way in which he’s imagined the future of our relationship with AI, and it has so many shades of all the best science fiction writing.

It’s so chilling, the inexorability in how Vivienne’s vision becomes a reality and the fact that in the beginning many members of the Lyons family think she’s great. They think that somehow there’s decency and humanity there, when actually it’s a will to power and someone who clearly has no moral fibre whatsoever. It’s terrifying.

Introduce us to your character and your role within the story?
I play an independent politician who speaks her mind and becomes incredibly popular because she’s very forthright. It’s a brilliant creation and Russell’s writing made her so incredibly alive and believable.

As an actor what attracted you to Years and Years?
The writing is absolutely wonderful, extraordinarily brilliant and chilling. The tension of it ratchets up slowly and then suddenly these terrible things start to happen and you can see how everybody got there and how difficult it is to stop once the genie’s been let out.

How did you prepare for playing the role of Vivienne Rook? Did you take inspiration from any well-known figures?
There’s no need to really because it’s just everywhere. What’s clever about Vivienne, in terms of Russell’s creation of this creature is that she presents as a down to earth, ordinary, working woman who just wants the best for everybody and feels passionately about ordinary people and ordinary issues. Of course she’s not that at all, she’s something a great deal more sinister and is someone who wants power.

Is humour a part of the character that you wanted to instil?
Yes absolutely. I try to make her as funny, self-deprecating and as charming as possible because we need to understand why people vote for her. But she turns into an absolute monster. If you give that kind of rhetoric air time, it proliferates because people find it a lot easier to hate and discriminate than they do to include and to feel compassion and empathy about people who aren’t directly related to them. It’s easy to scare people into feeling loathing and we’ve seen it happen again and again.

What do you hope the audience will take away from the drama?
There’s always hope, because it’s a story about human beings, and so whenever we go into a dark era we know that the only way is to get better and it will get better. I hope it will really provoke debate because it’s a discussion that we need now.

Do you have any memorable moments from filming on set?
It was a wonderful experience. Director Simon Cellan Jones is very collaborative and loves people bringing their energy on set, and the cast was uniformly fab.

It was a really lovely group of people, everyone on it from the make-up department to the wardrobe department, we all just mucked in. I was absolutely sustained by the fantastic group of people who knew exactly what they wanted and exactly what they were doing.

Vivienne Rook (Emma Thompson)

Businesswoman and entrepreneur, Viv’s a familiar face on modern media, always ready with a quote. But when she stands for Parliament and forms her own party, she begins an inexorable rise to power. She’s adored for speaking her mind, but what are her actual policies? And how far will she go to achieve them?

Muriel Deacon (Anne Reid)

Muriel Deacon (Anne Reid). Sharp as a knife. Wise, but opinionated. Proud and independent and defying the passing of time. She doesn’t sleep much. Enjoys a whisky. Her house is large, rambling and dilapidated. Mother to the late and much-missed Jennifer, she’s a devoted (and critical) grandmother to her beloved Lyons clan.

Stephen (Rory Kinnear)

Stephen Lyons (Rory Kinnear). The eldest. Lives in London while the rest of the Lyons stayed in Manchester. A financial adviser, he worked at home to bring up the kids while his wife Celeste went out to work. He’s the peacemaker, a calm, smiling man. Though he can afford to be - he’s rich. What will he become when his world is rocked?

Edith Lyons (Jessica Hynes)

The second child, she’s tough, wry, earthy, a bit of a hippy as a teenager. Always knew where to get hold of some weed. As an adult she’s become a fearless campaigner and something of an anarchist, with skills her family would find dodgy. She’s been travelling the world, but shocking events bring her home for good.

Daniel Lyons (Russell Tovey)

A housing officer in Manchester. He’s friendly, diligent and hardworking. Loves his family. Has a strong social conscience, but finds that hard to maintain in an ever-changing world. Daniels is going out with Ralph, and they’re about to get married, but maybe Daniel said yes too soon...

Rosie Lyons (Ruth Madeley)

The youngest Lyons, spirited, sharp, born with spina bifida. Single mother to Lee and Lincoln, by two different dads. Works as a chef manager in a local comprehensive school. She’s great fun and binds the family together, but Rosie will never forgive her dad for walking out on the Lyons family when she was young.

Celeste Bisme-Lyons (T’Nia Miller)

Married to Stephen. Chief Accountant, smart, stylish. A marvellous snob. Exasperated by modern technology. But she’s a proud mum to two daughters, Bethany and Ruby, and they have a comfortable life in a nice house in Barnsbury. One day, that life will feel like a distant dream.

Ralph Cousins (Dino Fetscher)

Primary school teacher. Always on his phone. Ralph’s the fun one, Daniel’s his straight man. They’ve been together for 18 months, married two years later. The end comes quicker and more brutally than Ralph could ever have predicted, and he takes a terrible revenge.

Viktor Goraya (Maxim Baldry)

Ukrainian refugee. Tortured in Ukraine for information about his friends. Nevertheless, he’s a kind, smiling man, a great survivor of his hardships, always looking for the positive side. Full of strength and laughter, Viktor is a source of great joy to Daniel, and will become the love of his life.

Bethany Bisme-Lyons (Lydia West)

Bethany Bisme-Lyons (Lydia West). Daughter to Stephen and Celeste. A brilliant student, Bethany is shy, quiet, withdrawn. But her introspection hides her secret passion. She’s obsessed with transhumanism, the culture of integrating humans with technology. But her ambition is in danger of taking her too far.

Ruby Bisme-Lyons (Jade Alleyne)

Daughter to Stephen and Celeste. Ruby’s fun and great company, enjoying everything the 21st Century has to offer. She’s a bit spoilt, unaware that her world is about to come crashing down.

Lee Lyons (Noah Wride, Blake Woods, Callum Woolford and Adam Little)

Rosie’s first-born son, his dad now lives in Slough with a new family, though that doesn’t cause Lee any grief. He’s a nice, home-loving lad, but as the estate he lives on gets rougher, Lee finds himself going outside the law.

Lincoln Lyons (Jett Moises, Aaron Ansari & Aiden Li)

Rosie’s half-Chinese son. Lincoln is born in episode one. And as he grows up and watched the Lyons family changing around him, his story, over the next 15 years, is set to be the most radical and exciting of all.

Cast and Crew

Vivienne Rook - Emma Thompson
Muriel Deacon - Anne Reid
Stephen Lyons - Rory Kinnear
Daniel Lyons - Russell Tovey
Rosie Lyons - Ruth Madeley
Edith Lyons - Jessica Hynes
Celeste Bisme-Lyons T’Nia Miller
Bethany Bisme-Lyons Lydia West
Ruby Bisme-Lyons - Jade Alleyne
Lee - Callum Woolford
Lincoln - Jett Moises, Aaron Ansari and Aiden Li
Ralph Cousins - Dino Fetscher
Viktor Goraya - Maxim Baldry

Nicola Shindler - Executive Producer
Michaela Fereday - Executive Producer & Head of Production
Russell T Davies - Executive Producer, Creator & Writer
Karen Lewis - Producer
Simon Cellan Jones - Director, Executive Producer
Lisa Mulcahy - Director

KS

Related Programme Information

• Episode one
• Episode two