Humans

• Original producer: Kudos
• Original broadcaster: AMC (USA) / Channel 4 (UK)

What happens when technology has advanced to the point where it begins to truly take over our lives, affecting our relationships? Humans is a thrilling new drama written by Sam Vincent and Jonathan Brackley (Spooks: The Greater Good) and produced by Kudos (Broadchurch, Utopia) for Channel 4 (UK) and AMC (USA) set in a parallel present where the latest must-have gadget for any busy family is a ‘Synth’ – a highly-developed robotic servant eerily similar in appearance to humans. These incredible machines share our homes, our jobs and our lives and so become the objects of our fear, lust, hatred, affection and even love.

Warm, funny, but like any other, the Hawkins family are loving, but flawed. In the hope of transforming the way they live, they purchase a Synth. When Joe (Tom Goodman-Hill, Mr Selfridge) brings home Anita (Gemma Chan, Sherlock), he hopes to ease the domestic pressure and repair the growing fractures in his marriage with Laura (Katherine Parkinson, The Honourable Woman, The IT Crowd).

Instead he risks losing everything he holds dear. On the surface, Anita is what all Synths are supposed to be – but every now and then, she does something inexplicable. Something almost human. How real is her apparent perfection? Is she something altogether more threatening?

As the line between human and machine increasingly blurs, Anita’s arrival triggers more compelling stories and introduces a raft of new characters: George Millican (William Hurt, A History Of Violence), Leo (Colin Morgan, Merlin), Vera (Rebecca Front, The Thick Of It), Peter (Neil Maskell, Utopia) and Niska (Emily Berrington, 24: Live Another Day).

Sinister, thrilling and packed full of emotion, Humans boldly explores the rapidly evolving relationship between humanity and technology and asks what does it really mean to be “human”?