Babylon (2014)

The missing link between the sitcoms and Succession, and the one most fans have never seen. Brit Marling plays Liz Garvey, an American brought in as communications director to modernize London's Metropolitan Police, with James Nesbitt as the commissioner she has to manage. The comedy comes from spin, institutional cowardice and people saying the right thing for the wrong reasons, which is exactly the muscle Armstrong would flex at Waystar RoyCo. Danny Boyle co-created it with Armstrong, Bain and Robert Jones and directed the pilot. Be warned that it amounts to that pilot and one six-episode series, all aired in 2014, and its writers have said a return is unlikely, so treat it as a self-contained curiosity.