London (AFP)

British screenwriter and producer Jesse Armstrong shed light on what drove him to create the hit HBO series at the London Film Festival, where the first two episodes of the third season were recently shown.

He said that the two magnates, founders of the groups News Corp and Viacom, had one day been asked, each on their own, what would happen after their death.

"They both replied that they had no intention of dying," Mr. Armstrong recalled, - Sumner Redstone finally passed away at 97 in August 2020. "It hit me" , he continued.

"What is happening to these men in their eighties or nineties with their busy daily schedules?"

"It felt like something pretty basic about not wanting to quit and losing influence at the end of your life. And I was starting to feel that there was a series (to be done). about what these people are in general, "he added.

“Succession,” produced by HBO and whose first season premiered in 2018, is a critical and popular hit that has garnered a host of awards, including the Emmy Award for Best Drama Series in 2020.

This black and creaky work features the powerful New York Roy family who tear themselves apart to take control of a fictional media empire, Waystar, over which patriarch and founder Logan Roy (played by Brian Cox) tries to keep control.

"Burst of horror"

The series built up a fan following even though, concedes Jesse Armstrong, some viewers didn't get hooked at the start "because they didn't find people likeable."

Those who stuck with the show were then able to gain a better understanding of the reason behind the villainous behavior of the characters.

"Does that excuse them? It's a question that I think rightfully comes up to the public."

More generally, the series bears very striking resemblances to the life of billionaire Rupert Murdoch, 90, whose News Corp group is one of the largest media empires in the world, notably with Fox network channels and The Times newspapers and The Sun in the UK.

Jesse Armstrong admits that he was based in part on a screenplay he wrote in the 2000s about the Australian-born tycoon.

His hero is of Scottish origin.

But "Succession" is mainly a fiction which deploys a lot of humor around its characters devoid of morality, in order to entertain and shock.

"It's obviously funny, I hope, but it's also a drama," screenwriter Armstrong said.

So much so that it doesn't necessarily trigger laughter, but sometimes "a burst of horror" or "a flash of understanding": "in its broadest sense, I think comedy can go in a lot of directions."

Jesse Armstrong, who is also one of the creators of the hit British series "Peep Show" and who has worked on others like "Black Mirror", was faced from the start of "Succession" with the dilemma of whether his aging media mogul had to or should not be dropped from the series.

"As soon as I started to write it, I knew it shouldn't die at the end of the first episode" or then in the first season.

“This is the planet, or the sun, around which they move. It could be fascinating one day to see what happens' if it goes, 'but not yet.'

© 2021 AFP