Jordan Tannahill has turned his novel, The Listeners, into a tense, timely BBC drama inspired by cults and conspiracy theories. He talks Brexit, banging raves and exploring kinks with closeted junior Tory ministers

When the Canadian playwright Jordan Tannahill moved to London in 2016, it was the week after the EU referendum. “For my partner at the time, who was British, it was a devastating kind of discombobulation,” Tannahill says. “It shattered not just his conception of his country, but his job prospects. And there was such tension within his family around Brexit – seeing how it drove a wedge between them was really quite stark.”

Tannahill and his partner were living in a flat by London City Airport, where the planes taking off would create “this low, reverberant sound that was just ever present”. The writer was also starting to chafe against the confines of his relationship. “It was loving but very staid. I felt like I was living the life of a middle-aged man,” Tannahill says – he’s now 36. “I had so many desires: I wanted to be out all night dancing with others in this kind of libidinal state of release at a rave.” He also had an urge to explore London’s fetish scene. “I think Claire’s journey is one that mirrored my own,” Tannahill says. “She’s seeking the collective ecstatic.”