Davies was keen to highlight Edith’s final words, a speech questioning what is human identity and whether each person is just part of one larger entity: love. And not only is Davies full of pride that he kept in this speech about human identity and love in a BBC1 drama, but he says he couldn’t be happier tackling these themes with the show’s very last line. It takes a lot of nerve and a deep breath to say 'I believe in this speech and I'm going to transmit this on BBC1. She sounds like everyone on Twitter all the time – she has that aggression, that sense of humour, that literal takedown of any person, issue or thing. Although Davies said he wrote this dialogue in 30 seconds (“not allowing for the ten years of thought that built up to that, though!

Instead, we see the Lyons family gathered around a device (the old Alexa-type machine Señor from past episodes), the screen cutting to black after grandmother Muriel asks the digital version of Edith “is that you? Yet, despite making confident predictions about the rise of bio-tech and a populist Prime Minister, the drama finished with a surprisingly uncertain ending, leaving viewers with some major questions. However, the finale also warned that Britain wasn’t safe forever, with another populist leader – the politician with a spinning bow tie shown on Question Time during the episode’s close – on the rise.You can believe what Edith says or you can think [Rook] was just taken away outside Downing Street, put in a car and left staring out in a very Thatcher-esque way. This comical black satin bow tie has an adjustable satin neck strap for a great fit and a discreet wire that can be tucked inside your shirt. That I believe the human race has this potential – the fact that we can love and be loved,” he explained. I didn't want to make it look like the downfall of Viv Rook led us into the sunny planes of Nirvana where all our problems will be over,” Davies explained. Although we see scientists upload Edith’s memories to the cloud (via a few futuristic water tanks) as the character dies, we never find out if her consciousness lives on.

Although we see her led away by police outside Downing Street, her fate is far from sure: the show suggests that Rook either lives out her days in prison, escapes and is on the run, or she's haunted by the digital spirit of Edith (Jessica Hynes) and forced to run through an endless corridor until the end of time. Wherever we use the word love, there’s a certain amount of embarrassed, usually male, viewership watching, thinking 'you can't do that, put a gun in their hand!Redemption, action and a whole lot of tears: the finale of BBC1’s staggeringly ambitious series Years and Years had plenty of both.