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‘This is getting weird’: Russell T Davies responds as Liz Truss wears same dress as Years and Years fascist

Emma Thompson’s fictional PM wore strikingly similar dress as she introduced plans for concentration camps in the UK

Isobel Lewis
Thursday 06 October 2022 10:32 BST
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Russell T Davies has shared his shock after Liz Truss appeared at the Tory party conference wearing the same dress as Emma Thompson’s character from Years and Years.

Thompson starred in Davies’ dystopian drama as Vivienne Rook, a populist politician and leader of the right-wing Four Star party who becomes the UK’s prime minister.

In order to deal with population increase in the show, Vivienne proposes the introduction of concentration camps, known as “Erstwhile sites”.

As she makes these plans, Thompson is seen wearing Karen Millen’s “Forever Dress”, which features lightly puffed sleeves and an inward collar.

However, eagle-eyed Twitter users pointed out that Truss appeared to be wearing the same dress during her speech at the Tory party conference on Wednesday (5 October).

The prime minister has previously worn the dress at an event in 2019.

Years and Years creator Davies was among those to spot the similarities, sharing a picture of the two outfits on Instagram and writing: “This is getting weird.”

“No f***ing WAY,” commented It’s A Sin star Callum Scott Howells, while Russell Tovey, who appeared in Years and Years, commented with crazy-faced emojis.

“That is really odd,” Jason Manford wrote.

“OMG the collar,” Zoe Ball added.

“Oh. My. God. Either that’s a very weird coincidence, you’re doing your best Mystic Meg or it’s a deliberate choice and I don’t know which is weirder,” another comment read.

Truss’s speech had already caused waves in the arts world thanks to her use of “Moving On Up” by M People, a move the band’s founder Mike Pickering was deeply unhappy with.

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“So apparently we can’t stop Truss walking out to our song, very weird!” Pickering wrote on Twitter. “So sad it got used by this shower of a government. [By the way] Truss, Labour used it with permission in Nineties. I don’t want my song being a soundtrack to lies.”

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