Introduction

Succession creator Jesse Armstrong reflects on the hit show's circuitous evolution. The original idea, a faux documentary laying out Rupert Murdoch's business secrets, with them delivered straight to camera, evolved as I worked into a sort of TV play set at the media owner's 80th birthday party. Channel 4 was supportive, but it was an odd form, this doggy drama TV play, and difficult to make happen. Around 2011, after a read through in London where John Hurt played Rupert, the project essentially died. My US agent was the first person who recall suggesting a totally different approach. A fictional family, a multi-series US show. For five years or so, I dismissed the idea