Politicians could learn from ‘Years and Years’. At least it’s taking our fears about impending doom seriously

Have you seen it? Honestly, it’s the best programme on the telly by a country mile and it’s available on iPlayer (you’ll thank me). Years and Years – written by Russell T Davies, the screen writer responsible for many brilliant shows including Queer as Folk, Bob and Rose and the rebooting of Doctor Who back in 2005 – has pulled off something which manages to straddle day to day domesticity with utter chaos, and the best/worst thing about it is that it feels like it could happen right here, tomorrow.

Years and Years is a near-future dystopian drama that succeeds in weaving science fiction into a classy family soap opera, and as a result achieves something more chilling than anything I’ve watched in recent months (admittedly, I’ve yet to see Chernobyl).

Since coming back from holiday a week ago and feeling the force of being sucked back into a vacuum of countrywide unhappiness, the phrase “this is very Years and Years” hasn’t strayed far from my lips. I don’t know about you, but I feel we’re all sitting on a tinderbox and the only question is: when will it blow… how much more bonkers does this country have to get before the lid comes off?

Last week’s madness – of which there was an abundance – even managed to include the pillorying of Jo Brand, a woman who has never committed a cruel deed in her life but merely made the mistake of making a clumsy joke on a radio comedy show. With Nigel Farage hysterically fanning the flames, this joke ended up being temporarily investigated by the police.

Even Theresa May weighed in on the argument, demanding to know why it had ever been broadcast. What that woman’s got to do with anything now, I have no idea. Isn’t it time she took off running through a wheat field somewhere? Meanwhile, as precious police resources were wasted on a joke (which the producer of the programme decided not to edit), two more teenage boys were stabbed to death within minutes of each other in London.

Can we please get some sense of proportion here? The fictional Years and Years shows us what happens when all sense of perspective is lost, and the lunatics really do start taking over the asylum. Emma Thompson is at a career best; her mop of blonde hair spookily prescient and her vile red power suits horribly spot on.

Every time my partner and I sit down to watch it, my stomach churns with anxiety. What else is going to go wrong, how much worse is it going to get this week? And this is how I feel right now about the UK, how much worse is it going to get this week? The summer already threatens to be a wash out, terrible people are vying for the leadership of the Conservative Party, and five people have died of a listeria outbreak in more than one hospital. Imagine dying from eating a chicken sandwich in 2019, how can this possibly be?

You can see where Davies gets his inspiration from – us. He has been quietly watching and waiting and writing it all down, pushing the narrative a little bit further into fantasy, but not so far as it isn’t horribly believable.

He asks the questions we should all be asking: what if it was you and I who ended up at the mercy of people-trafficking profiteers and ended up dying on overcrowded boats in the Channel? What if the banks really did foreclose the day after you sold your house and you lost every penny you ever had? What if young girls were running off to have “work” done in dodgy clinics that refuse to adhere to any safety guidelines?

Ahem, this is actually happening already. Girls may not be visiting decommissioned container ships in order to have electronic phone chips inserted into their hands, but they are having concrete injected into their buttocks and dying as a consequence.

We are so close to this work of fiction it’s terrifying. Davies has been described as a genius on many occasions, and he certainly knows how to tap into our innermost fears. Maybe cabinet isn’t where the true brains exist any more, not judging by the current mob anyway. Personally, I reckon the government should snap up Davies and put him in a think tank pronto, to make sure that none of what he has written ever comes true. Because at the moment, it doesn’t look as if anyone in politics can see further than the end of their nose0  and it’s the rest of us who are having sleepless nights about our futures.

Years and Years, with its exceptional cast and brilliant production values, finishes its six-part run on Tuesday on BBC1 at 9pm and I’m not sure whether I’m brave enough to see how it all ends. In fact, as with Doctor Who back in the day, I might have to watch this one from behind the sofa.