Industry

****

The publicity photos for this BBC1 drama have its cast posing like the cover stars of Vanity Fair’s Hollywood issue. What a right bunch of investment bankers they look as well.

Gone are the days when bankers on TV meant Captain Mainwaring and Sergeant Wilson of Dad’s Army. The City types in Industry are mostly hip young things devoid of depth and fuelled by sex, drugs, greed and the desire to screw over their fellow man and woman.

What a horrible lot. Less fur coat and nae knickers, more Prada bags and no scruples. But the characters’ awfulness is one of the reasons Industry has been a must-watch since its 2020 debut on HBO and the BBC.

If you have yet to make its acquaintance, blame the sex, drugs and swearing for keeping the show tucked away behind the watershed.

A quick recap for the uninitiated. In the first series, Industry played like a noughties This Life, with a band of graduate trainees fighting to stay in their 20-hours-a-day jobs. The second series was darker and more Darwinian still. Casualties occurred. Now the third series - with a fourth already commissioned - finds the ones still standing suffering major downturns.

Yasmin (Marisa Abela), the poor little rich girl who used to live in the basement of her father’s townhouse, has paparazzi hiding in a skip outside her dump of a home. Harper (Myha’la), the tiny, powerhouse American running from her past, has fallen down the career ladder, while working-class boy made good Robert (Harry Lawtey), for my money still the most interesting of the bunch, continues to grapple with his many demons.

New to the cast is Kit Harrington (Game of Thrones) as a posho entrepreneur type hoping to filthy rich quick by taking his energy company public.

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At least I think that’s what was going on. It is hard to tell with Industry sometimes. With so much financial jargon pinging around like stray bullets it is hard to know if it is New York or New Year. “You’ve calculated your indebtedness as a net debt to EBITDA ratio and it looks like you’ve just massaged the EBITDA to make that ratio,” says one investor.

All together now boys and girls: “Eh?”

Unless you know your amortisation from your elbow, forget it. What viewers really need is The Herald’s business editor on hand to translate, but he’s busy on Tuesdays, or so he says.

Being unable to understand large chunks of dialogue would normally spell disaster in any drama. Here it is all part of the joke. As a potential buyer puts it: “I truly hate how you sell-side guys speak. It’s all just f*****g smoke and mirrors.”

What better way to describe the workings of late-stage capitalism? One might almost think the systems were designed to bamboozle ordinary Joes and Janes, stop them asking questions about where the money goes, or what’s going on with the pension pot. Even the title is a joke. The only thing that gets made in Industry is money.

Far easier to understand are the characters and their reactions as they swim through the shark-infested waters of work and relationships.

Creators Mickey Down and Konrad Kay both worked in finance and it shows. They know the cynicism at work and the trade-offs. “Is she good or is she just another senior woman ticking the governance box?” asks one partner of a fellow board member.

Moans? The character names are too on the nose (Sweetpea Golightly? Henry Muck?), the sayings of the alpha male executives are daft even for those silly braggers, and you might find the overall tone repellent.

But tip of the hat to Down and Kay. They have grown in confidence with each series and are now finding their groove.

The show has become so hip it has attracted a cameo from none other than Amol Rajan, playing a reporter interviewing Kit Harington’s character. Amol, love you mate, but as far as acting goes, best stick with the Today job. I did like the Harington character’s dismissal of Rajan’s reporter as “a f*****g tote bag journalist [who] won’t allow us to do a good thing”. Tote bag journalist, ouch.

Let’s not get too carried away here. Industry is not Succcession. It is in the next postcode though, with plans to move nearer the station. Which makes it all the more annoying if people haven’t heard about it. Previous series are on iPlayer. If you have the time I would recommend a catch-up. A pain, I know, but this is one investment of your time you won’t regret making.

BBC1, Tuesday/all episodes on iPlayer now