Dame Emma Thompson appears as a ruthless politician in the first-look trailer for Russell T Davies’ star-studded new drama Years And Years.
The future looks chaotic and unsettling in the new six-part BBC series, which follows one family attempting to survive the future as Britain is rocked by unstable political, economic and technological advances.
As the Lyons family’s complex lives converge on one crucial night in 2019, the programme will follow them over the next 15 years with the twists and turns of their everyday life.
Alongside Dame Emma, the series also stars Russell Tovey, Rory Kinnear, Jessica Hynes, T’Nia Miller, Ruth Madeley and Anne Reid.
In the trailer, Dame Emma – who plays a celebrity-turned-politician – appears in a short scene in Question Time, bluntly telling viewers “I do not give a…”.
Her comment comes after Hynes’ character says that we are “racing to the next disaster, when’s it ever going to stop?”.
Dame Emma plays Vivienne Rook in the series, whose controversial opinions divide the nation.
Described as a new breed of politician, an entertainer, a rebel, and a trickster, her rise to power will lead the country into an unknown future.
Tovey’s character Daniel Lyons, cradling a newborn baby, ominously says: “What sort of world are we in, because if it’s this bad now, what’s it going to be like for you in 30 years’ time?
“Ten years, five years – what’s it going to be like?”
Kinnear plays Daniel’s brother Stephen, a financial adviser and the family’s peacekeeper who is married to Celeste, played by Miller, an ambitious and opinionated accountant.
Another clip from the trailer shows their daughter, played by Lydia West, telling them: “I’m not transsexual – I’m transhuman. I will be data.”
Tovey’s Daniel is a hard-working housing officer and his and Stephen’s sister Edith, played by Hynes, is radical, dangerous and calculating with a secret life, while Rosie, played by Madeley, is heavily pregnant.
Reid presides over the Lyons family as grandmother Muriel.
Each episode of the programme will propel viewers a year or two ahead, and will focus on the family as they survive against the backdrop of a confusing political world.
Former Doctor Who boss Davies recently said that Dame Emma’s character uses “all of the tricks” of modern politicians.
He told the BFI & Radio Times Television Festival: “There’s a bit of (Boris) Johnson in there, there’s a bit of (Nigel) Farage in there, but her being a woman makes it completely new energy.
“She knows how to talk nonsense, when to tell the truth, she knows how to get a vote, she’s looming over the whole thing.”
BBC One will air the trailer on TV for the first time on Sunday evening.
Years And Years will air in May.