Kenneth Branagh as Boris Johnson in This England
(Picture: Phil Fisk/ Sky UK Ltd)The year is 2020. As the UK’s media gather in the press room of Number 10 Downing Street, Boris Johnson adjusts his tie, shuffles his notes, and tells the public that they need to stay at home, wash their hands, and save lives. Except it’s not Boris Johnson: it’s Kenneth Branagh with a face full of prosthetics, and this is This England, the new Sky drama about how the government reacted to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The show doesn’t air until next week but This England is already dividing opinion among politicians. “The rhetoric about events changes as you get further away from them,” says MP Jess Phillips. “It’s quite hard to make something that is of such current events as people’s views might change. I think it’s a bold thing to do. But I think it’s really, really risky that it dates very quickly.”
