Sex, drugs and drama make for spectacular television, so it might come as a surprise that the world of the British banking industry has rarely been explored (well) on screen. HBO and BBC Two’s new show Industry is here to change that.
The fictional show follows a group of young graduates competing for permanent positions at a top investment bank in London. As the pressure amps up at work, they find their personal lives mirroring the chaos and moral ambiguity of the office. There’s is a world we all know exists, but most of us rarely get a true insight into – beyond stories at the pub or brief encounters with gaggles of suited and beer-fuelled grads around Liverpool Street station.
The protagonist Harper (played by Myha’la Herrold) is a frank and likeable American whose background doesn’t quite check out. She moves in with Yasmin (Marisa Abela), the rich girl living in her parent’s spare house in Notting Hill, unable to shake her princess reputation at work and move past fetching coffees. Robert (played by Harry Lawtey) and Gus (David Jonsson) are housemates and former Etonians living in Finsbury Park. Robert is too busy chasing drink, drugs and girls to make any real impression in the company, whilst Gus’ domineering attitude makes him a company favourite but a frenemy to his peers.
