Thread by @thetimes

For Jesse Armstrong (@jessearmstrong1), who co-wrote Peep Show, Fresh Meat and three seasons of The Thick of It, #Succession has brought a new level of acclaim.

We sat down with the show’s creator and asked what he has planned for its fourth season. thetimes.co.uk/article/succes…

Jesse Armstrong surely has a hard task of maintaining the stratospheric standards of a comedy drama whose quality is now being compared to The Sopranos.

He need not worry, however. The third season’s debut episode on Monday won its biggest audience for Sky Atlantic and Now.

Critics have all but unanimously awarded five-star reviews.

“It feels like it went OK, so that’s nice,” says Armstrong, a modest man speaking from his London home where he writes most of Succession. thetimes.co.uk/article/succes…

Of his characters, he says: “If you’re writing somewhat monstrous figures, people will relate to them, but relating is OK.

“My moral responsibility is creating a show that bears relationship to the world and presenting everyone the evidence.”

Does the show have a view about media power and ownership? “Very much so. I think if you were to invest this much time and effort into something which didn’t, it would be a very odd endeavour.”

“I think the media environment in the US is a big problem,” Armstrong says, “and in terms of the tenor of public debate.”

There are eight more episodes to relish this season, but how many further seasons can we hope for? “Putting a number on it feels like a weird thing to do. What I’ve tended to say is, ‘I don’t think it should go on for ever.’”

Read more: thetimes.co.uk/article/succes…