Ashley

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Lore & Background

The episode draws inspiration from Brooker's earlier sitcom script about a 1977 punk band hanged by a Conservative minister, whose manager profited from their deaths. It also incorporates real-world concerns regarding holographic performances of deceased artists like Prince, Whitney Houston, and Amy Winehouse, which Brooker described as 'ghoulish'. The story critiques the inauthenticity within the music industry rather than pop music itself. In this fictional reality, technology allows for the extraction of an artist's entire consciousness into a doll owned by fans. This creates a dynamic where the real Ashley O is silenced and commodified while her digital duplicate interacts with teenagers like Rachel Goggins. The system relies on medication to suppress the artist's true creative instincts, specifically 'broody music', in favor of commercially viable hits.

In Their Own Story

After her mother's death, Rachel receives an interactive robotic doll named Ashley Too for her fifteenth birthday. While Rachel treats the doll as a friend, her sister Jack hides it after Rachel embarrasses herself dancing to 'On a Roll' at a school talent contest. Meanwhile, the real Ashley O is kept in a coma by Catherine and Doctor Munk, who harvest her brainwaves for new songs. Six months later, the doll glitches upon seeing news of the coma. Rachel and Jack connect Ashley Too to diagnostic software used by their father, Kevin, removing a limiter that reveals the doll contains Ashley's full consciousness. The trio travels to Catherine's house, where Jack poses as a pest control technician. Rachel unplugs the life support intended to keep Ashley comatose, only for the machine to actually be perpetuating it; upon disconnection, Ashley wakes up. They flee with both Ashleys and crash a venue where Catherine is debuting 'Ashley Eternal', a holographic replacement.

Reader's Guide

Miley Cyrus performs two songs in the episode: 'On a Roll' and 'Right Where I Belong', which are adaptations of Nine Inch Nails tracks. 'On a Roll' was released by Cyrus, appearing on several national music charts and receiving a Guild of Music Supervisors Award nomination. Filming took place over five weeks in late 2018 in Cape Town, South Africa, with the cast working six days per week. The Ashley Too doll's movements were a mix of real-time control by two crew members and computer-generated imagery. In the final scene, filmed at a Cape Town bar on Cyrus's last day, Ashley O performs 'Head Like a Hole' (originally by Nine Inch Nails) in her pop rock style with Jack on bass. The character was conceived based on Brooker's idea of an AI serving as a celebrity virtual assistant or imitating songwriters like John Lennon, though the final script focuses on Catherine's exploitation.

Did You Know?

• Charlie Brooker based the episode on a comedy sitcom script he wrote years prior about a punk band whose members were hanged and returned to life.
• Miley Cyrus accepted the role within a couple of days, surprising the executive producers who did not expect her interest.
• Filming for the episode took place in Cape Town, South Africa, over five weeks in late 2018, despite the story being set in America.
• The song 'On a Roll' was an adaptation of a Nine Inch Nails track and received a Guild of Music Supervisors Award nomination.
• During the scene where Ashley O wakes from her coma, Miley Cyrus used the personal trauma of losing her home to a California wildfire to inform her acting.