Vivienne Alison ‘Viv’ Rook was a prominent businesswoman, entrepreneur and politician who served as an MP for Manchester from 2025 to 2027 and then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2027 to 2029. She was a familiar face on modern media, always ready with a quote. In 2019, after making a controversial statement about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Question Time, Rook became a widely known and prominent figure in the United Kingdom, eventually using her popularity and status to become an MP for Manchester. Adored by the public for speaking her mind, Viv’s policies were unclear - and nobody knew how far she‘d be prepared to go to achieve them. She later would be arrested and charged with a murder that occurred on one of the 'Erstwhile' concentration camps built for holding refugees, and in the series it is implied that someone else is pulling the strings and using her, though the identity of this person (or group) is never revealed.
History[]
Vivienne Rook was born in Manchester in 1964, but nothing else is known about her early life. On 14 May 2019, Rook caused controversy by saying she "doesn't give a f***" about the Israel-Palestine conflict on the BBC political debate show Question Time. Viv soon started a political party, calling it The Four Star Party, the stars representing the asterisks that were used to censor her unapologetic use of the "F-bomb" on TV. In 2025, Rook was elected Member of Parliament for Manchester in a landslide by-election.
A year later in 2026, in response to a recent banking crisis caused by the collapse of an American bank, Rook proposed a national IQ test that would bar anyone with an IQ of less than 70 from voting. That same year, in a general election, the Four Star Party won fifteen seats in Parliament, allowing Rook to determine the balance of power between a minority government and the opposition. In 2027, voting was made universally mandatory, coalition government collapsed, and Rook became Prime Minister.
Rook promised freedom to her supporters but soon began arresting her opponents. Catastrophic flooding and two dirty bombs result in huge numbers of displaced residents in the UK, prompting a new law that requires people with extra space in their homes to take in the victims. The impoverished are taken off the streets and detained in "Erstwhile" facilities, concentration camps for the poor. This scheme would ultimately prove to be Rook's undoing, as two years later, in 2029, activist Bethany Bisme-Lyons, with the help of her friends, exposed the horrors of the Erstwhile camps to the world by blowing signal-blocking towers that prevented the media from broadcasting any footage of the camps, causing the inmates to rush the gates, while armed guards threatened them. At the same time, Stephen Lyons confronts Celeste while she is helping Edith using the company's computers, revealing that he had intended to broadcast incriminating evidence against Viv Rook's death camps and then kills himself. With the signals unblocked, Bethany and her friends at work broadcast footage from the camp to the whole country. Soon, Rook was arrested and sentenced for the murder of one of the inmates, ending her political career.
Behind the scenes[]
Portrayal[]
Vivienne Rook is played by Emma Thompson.
Trivia[]
- Having been born in 1964, Rook is five years younger than Emma Thompson (born 15 April 1959).
- The name "Vivien Rook" was previously used for a character in the Doctor Who episode The Sound of Drums, also written by Russell T Davies.