Years and Years: one family over 15 years

Russell T. Davis has returned to the BBC with a new limited-series drama about an extended family living through a slightly dystopian near future Britain, suffering the highs, lows, setbacks and loss. Years and Years will begin broadcasting on BBC One May 14, and it’s expected on HBO in June.

Years and Years stars Russell Tovey, Rory Kinnear, T’Nia Miller, Ruth Madeley, Anne Reid, Lydia West, Jade Alleyne and Jessica Hynes, making up the Lyons family. Emma Thompson as a controversial businesswomen turned local MP. Maxim Baldry as Viktor Goraya, a Ukrainian refugee who has a relationship with Tovey’s character Daniel (Maxim was the young boy in Mr. Bean’s Holiday).

The six-episode series covers a 15 year span starting with present day 2019 then each episode jumping ahead a few years. The series was announced in June 2018 with Russell T. Davis on board to write what the BBC described as “an epic drama following a family over 15 years of unstable political, economical and technological advances”. Much of that political instability comes from Britain’s exit for the EU and growing political climate, plus the state of politics in the US and elsewhere.

In the announcement Davies was quoted as saying “I’ve wanted to write this for 20 years or so. And as the world accelerates like crazy around us, I realised I’d better get on with it.” The programme was commissioned by BBC One to be produced by Red Production Company, which has previously produced Davies’ shows Queer as Folk, Cucumber, and Bob & Rose.

Watch Years and Years on BBC One starting May 14, and on HBO starting June 24. Or buy the entire Years and Years series on iTunes/Apple TV