years edith

Years and Years' bizarre season one finale explained

What did you think of the twist ending?

TV & Film Editor
June 18, 2019

Years and Years' season one concluded on Tuesday night with a huge twist that had everyone talking. After the UK had almost gone to ruin thanks to the machinations of Viv Rook (Emma Thompson), the Lyons family took part in setting the world to rights with Edith exposing the concentration camps where they were holding asylum seekers, Steven sending details of his company's misdeeds to the police, and Rosie breaking through the barrier of her home.

The show was Edith's memories

While the show seemed to end on a happy note, it then went to flick ahead into the future, as it has since episode one, when the moment is interrupted by a woman in scrubs in a futuristic room. Edith, who is dying from radiation poisoning, is there with wires attached to her brain. It transpires that the events of the entire series has actually been taken from Edith's brain, which is being uploaded into data, just like how Bethany explained it could way back in the first episode. Ahead of her inevitable death, Edith was making her consciousness digital, and planned to go on living through technology. The final moments of the critically lauded show saw the Lyons family gather around their gran's 'old' virtual assistant as they wait to see whether it really worked, and if 'Edith' really is alive.

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What did you think of the finale?

Speaking about the series at the BFI & Radio Times Television Festival launch, creator Russell T. Davies said: "I thought writing a family was the key to it. I wanted to take something like that, but instead of taking it from World War II or the sixties, push it into the future to see where we're going. A housing officer and migration, how boring is that drama?! You want to give it heart."

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