Succession

The two formed a double act to rival Tom and Greg, as hilarious in their marital banter as they were rigorous in their analysis, and far less toxic than the self-proclaimed Disgusting Brothers – but maybe just as bawdy.

It says a lot that HBO had its own official podcast for the show but that, come the final season, Lloyd and Barron were seemingly landing interviews with whomever they fancied.

Although I’m surprised that Jesse Armstrong braved an appearance after all of Barron’s creepy love letters to the unsuspecting showrunner.

The bombastic take on a road-trip-gone-wrong zips between comedy, thriller and gangster flick with frenetic impatience. Combining the hallmarks of each genre without things getting busy is no mean feat, but the eight-part adaption of Zoran Drvenkar’s novel You makes it look easy.

So here’s a promise: this is going to be the only review of Michael Wolff’s book on Fox News and the Murdoch succession that doesn’t bang on about Succession, the TV series.

It now seems obvious that art (the TV series) began by imitating life (Rupert Murdoch and the battle to inherit his crown) and life has now returned the favour. But this is well-trodden terrain.

Matthew Garrahan, Financial Times: Sky was primarily a satellite business. You’ve moved aggressively into IP. Are you turning off the satellite dishes any time soon?

Dana Strong, Sky: It’s a key strategic pillar for us to move on to a new, IP-based platform and this year we literally blew the satellite dish up in our TV commercials.… Seeing where the trends in consumption were going, we wanted to ensure consumers had choice…

Just a fortnight after a universally acclaimed finale brought Succession to a triumphant conclusion, one might have expected the showrunner of HBO’s mega hit to be enjoying some well-earned R&R, perhaps chartering a yacht in the French Riviera, or retreating to a mansion in the Hollywood hills.

Instead, Jesse Armstrong could be found attending a rally in arguably the least relaxing place on Earth, plonked, during a heatwave, between M&M’s, Wetherspoons and the giant Odeon in the visceral nightmare that is Leicester Square.

For one of the most powerful programme chiefs in the UK, Zai Bennett, Managing Director of Content for Sky UK and Ireland since June 2019, wears his authority lightly. He is responsible for a portfolio of services that includes Sky Atlantic, Sky Comedy, Sky Documentaries and Sky Arts. He has helped to nurture such hits as I Hate Suzie, Gangs of London, Bulletproof, A Discovery of Witches, Save Me, In the Long Run, Breeders and Brassic.

Cox, best known for his star turn in Succession as Waystar Royco CEO Logan Roy, will play The Controller, the enigma who determines the fate of the teams of two competing in a global adventure.

From the Scottish Highlands to Venice and Jamaica, the series will visit many iconic locations from the Bond franchise as it tests the intelligence, endurance and heroism of the contestants. As well as conquering all the obstacles in their path, they will have to answer the questions hidden in the different locations to progress to the next challenge.

“Sumner’s constant demands on Brandon, not to mention his pursuit of some of the same women, contributed to a sometimes awkward relationship between grandfather and grandson.” (Unscripted, page 46)

Some 20 years ago, at an RTS dinner, I found myself sitting next to a billionaire entertainment mogul, a man few people would have recognised if they had passed him in the street, but whose influence over what we watched on television and in the cinema was huge.

Jesse Armstrong’s scathing satire of the super-rich follows Logan Roy, the tyrannical patriarch of a media dynasty, and his family’s endless infighting for his throne. All of the characters, especially the siblings Kendall, Shiv, Roman and Connor, are dripping with dysfunction – “daddy issues” doesn’t even begin to cover it. But so rich and layered is the writing that the roots of the dysfunction lie deep in the subtext.