It was two o'clock in the morning. James should have been asleep, but he had forced himself to stay awake. There was no way he was going to miss the final episode of Succession.  

The series is about a media tycoon, Logan Roy, and three of his children. Logan has risen from humble origins to become one of the richest men in the US.

He is a double-crossing bully who treats his family incredibly badly. But his children try to stay close to him because each hopes to take over his media empire.

Logan enjoys playing them off against each other. Old age begins to get the better of him, but he still refuses to name a successorA person who takes over from someone else, often in a job. . The last episode reveals who finally wins.

Succession is often compared to one of ShakespeareAn English playwright and poet who is often called the greatest writer in the English language. 's plays, King Lear. This is also about children competing to take over from their father. But the plots of the play and the TV series are very different.

The play begins with Lear in old age saying that he is going to give up his kingdom. He plans to divide it equally between his three daughters. First, though, he wants them to say how much they love him.

Two of them, Goneril and Regan, make empty speeches about their devotion to him. But the youngest, Cordelia, refuses to play the game. Instead, she says simply that she loves him as she should.

In a fury, Lear casts her out and gives her share of the kingdom to the other two.

But unlike Logan Roy, he has made a mistake by giving up power too early. Goneril and Regan treat him with so badly that he goes mad. The three daughters then fight each other for control of the kingdom.     

Some believe that King Lear sheds light on modern figures such as Donald Trump and Boris Johnson. Maureen Dowd, writing in The New York Times, says that is shows the chaos that comes "when madmen lead the blind".

Yes: Many of his plays are about power struggles and family relationships, so he would be fascinated by a 21st Century view of them. He would also appreciate the sharp scriptwriting.  

No: He was also concerned with more fundamental issues such as the struggle between good and evil. Since all the main characters in Succession are bad, it lacks that crucial extra dimension.

Or... He would enjoy Dr Who more. Since the genre of science fiction had not yet been been invented in the ElizabethanFrom the time of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England - 1558 to 1603. age, he would be intrigued by the possibilities that if offers a writer.