Good People

Drama of the Week

BBC

Fiction, Drama

3.7 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 13 February 2026

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Four young idealists - Sonia, Kieran, Indigo and Ayad - fall under the spell of charismatic thinker Faith Abbott at university and channel her ideas into a bold political experiment: Project Hope.

In 2020 they start to reinvent politics from the ground up. But nearly a decade on Britain stands divided, and the group has splintered. When Sonia discovers Faith has denounced Project Hope from beyond the grave, she is forced to revisit the group's remarkable beginnings. Was their experiment always doomed to fail?

Good People is a fictional story set against our very real political moment, examining the rise of populism, the perceived failure of politics-as-usual, and the deep divisions that run though our country and beyond.

This is the first episode in an ambitious six-part state of the nation drama from award-winning political writer Steve Waters.

CAST Sonia ..... Natalie Simpson Faith ..... Anastasia Hille Kieran ..... Nicholas Armfield Indigo ..... Alby Baldwin Ayad ..... Ikky Kabir Philip ..... Clive Hayward Gabe ..... Django Bevan Abbie ..... Iona Champain

Writer ..... Steve Waters Sound ..... Andy Garratt, Keith Graham, Sam Dickinson Casting Manager ..... Alex Curran Script Development ..... Abigail Le Fleming Production Co-ordinator ..... Kate Gray Assistant Producer ..... Luke MacGregor Director ..... Anne Isger

A BBC Studios Audio production.

This drama was originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4.

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio Podcasts.
0:05.7	Hello, you're about to listen to a BBC podcast, and I'm Ed Gamble, host of another BBC podcast, The Traitors Uncloaked.
0:12.7	But my show is available only on BBC Sounds, just like Ellis and John's Saturday bonus episodes,
0:18.2	The Pop Top Ten podcast with Scott Mills and Rylan, and comedy specials
0:22.2	from the likes of Harriet Kemsley, Susie Ruffle and Rommashranganathan.
0:25.9	However, and maybe I'm biased, it's really all about the traitors uncoaked.
0:30.3	So for a whole bunch of exclusive scoops and podcasts, listen only on BBC Sounds.
0:35.1	This is Drama of the Week.
0:41.9	Good People by Steve Waters.
0:46.4	Episode 1, The Great Reset.
0:51.7	Ladies and gentlemen, it's the captain speaking.
0:54.2	We are preparing our descent into Londonese road.
0:57.0	It's a traditional British May Day, which means...
0:59.0	After a year of being a citizen of nowhere, I felt the pull of home.
1:05.0	And as the clouds parted to reveal ribbon roads, toy-sized warehouses, the Thames glittering. I almost shouted,
1:13.7	there it is, Britain, exactly as I left it. But things look different on the ground.
1:22.5	Kieran, hey, it's me, Sonia. I'm back. Yeah, I just touched down, so call me when you can. Okay, bye.
1:36.2	I hope you're not in hurry. I need to be in Bury place in an hour.
1:40.6	Loving your optimism. A whole bunch of road closures, you know, the big march.
1:45.0	Okay, the fight back march, presumably.
1:47.5	It was the flags that winded me.
1:50.5	The Union Jack, hanging like a threat from every lamp post.
	...

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