Over an intense first season, Industry<\/a> gained a splash of notoriety for scenes of sex and drug-taking with its portrayal of a group of graduates\u2019 hard-working and hard-partying City life. These paled in comparison with the drama\u2019s most shocking moment yet in the new season \u2013 on the trading room floor, at his desk and in full view of all, managing director Eric (Ken Leung)<\/a> clips his toenails.<\/p>\n When I suggest to Mickey Down and Konrad Kay, the show\u2019s writers, that this is their most outrageous scene to date, they laugh. \u201cThat\u2019s a power move by a senior person to tell everyone they\u2019re the most senior,\u201d explains Down. \u201cYou would never be able to do that as a junior.\u201d<\/p>\n Power is the commodity chased by every floor at investment bank Pierpoint & Co in Industry. Made by the BBC\/HBO and set in the City of London, the show\u2019s toxic cocktail of financial jargon, scathing repartee and youth-centric soap-opera office dynamics has made it one of HBO\u2019s most-watched shows in the US, and the first season a niche hit on BBC Two in the UK.<\/p>\n The show has jumped channels to BBC One for the second season, and the graduates, now over a year into their careers, have a similar amount to prove \u2013 but it seems these fictional characters might stay longer in their job than their creators.<\/p>\n 12 months was how long Down lasted in the City as an intern on a mergers and acquisitions team, while Kay managed three years as an equity salesman at Morgan Stanley.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a certain level at which you can\u2019t bulls**t your way to competency. People just see through you. I was three years in when my boss said, \u2018You\u2019re s**t at your job,’\u201d admits Kay. \u201cAnd he was right. There was no dressing it up.\u201d<\/p>\n Down agrees he also reached his natural ceiling. \u201cI had to work really hard to be average. Maybe decades ago you could be average in the job and make some money, but it\u2019s a very technical and intellectually driven job now. You have to actually be smart. I had such impostor syndrome when I was in banking and I always knew I was never going to be good at it. My job was very technical and I\u2019m not a technician.\u201d<\/p>\n This year is a critical one for fledgeling traders Harper (Myha\u2019la Herrold), Yasmin (Marisa Abela) and Robert (Harry Lawtey), as well as their employer, the tireless money-manager that \u2013 ironically \u2013 doesn\u2019t give its young employees much credit.<\/p>\n In reality, their careers are flying alongside the show\u2019s critical success, particularly in America where Industry has been a cult hit. Herrold stars in the new black comedy film Bodies Bodies Bodies<\/a>, Lawtey will star alongside Christian Bale and Gillian Anderson in new Netflix<\/a> movie The Pale Blue Eye, while Abela features in the Barbie<\/a> film and is tipped to play Amy Winehouse in the biopic Back to Black. Some of Industry\u2019s characters would benefit from going to rehab.<\/p>\n As viewers discovered a fortnight ago, this is not an environment that has become kinder or more balanced in the past few years. The reaction to Harper\u2019s return, after months of self-imposed exile and remote working from a hotel room, was vitriolic.<\/p>\n When you understand this season\u2019s opening episodes were filmed in July 2021, the writers have been remarkably fortunate in how Industry\u2019s return to the workplace has been mirrored in real life. Down explains, \u201cWe didn\u2019t want eight hours of a COVID drama, but we did want to see how it affected the characters.\u201d<\/p>\n The effects on society, especially attitudes in some offices towards working from home, were impossible to ignore. Kay says, \u201cIt won\u2019t affect the story, but it will affect everybody\u2019s psychology in their return to the office.\u201d Was Brexit a similar important topical thread that warranted inclusion? \u201cI like mentioning Brexit because it gets up people\u2019s noses,\u201d says Down. Kay\u2019s analysis goes further. \u201cNo one can explain a single good thing that\u2019s happened off the back of it.\u201d<\/p>\n The show\u2019s foresight, which both recognise is due to pure luck, is deeply entrenched in the new season, although that might not be obvious to many viewers. \u201cWe had a very good consultant on season 2, who\u2019s a bit of a Zorro figure. What\u2019s really weird is a lot of what happens in season 2 are events which have happened in the financial world in the last 12 months,\u201d reveals Kay. Down is comically regretful about losing a chance to make serious money. \u201cI wish we\u2019d traded off the predictions. The consultant jokes we\u2019d all be in jail if we had.\u201d<\/p>\n Such coincidences have reinforced the drama\u2019s authenticity \u2013 the pair speak of messages they\u2019re sent by people who see themselves portrayed on screen. Friends of theirs, who still work in finance, make sly cameos, admits Kay. \u201cWe\u2019ve managed to insert maybe six or seven of our friends\u2019 names into season 2, like when someone answers a phone and gives their full name.\u201d<\/p>\n Industry hardly idolises its subject. The poisonous attitudes and behaviours on the trading-room floor form a ritualised process for newcomers to endure, those who survive then perpetuating the practice on newcomers. In the opening episode, Yasmin is furious a graduate isn\u2019t forced to suffer being exploited as the desk gopher as she was \u2013 is that a commentary on the environment they experienced and would they hope to break that cycle?<\/p>\n \u201cCycles of harm are a very important facet of Industry,\u201d explains Kay. \u201cThat scene with Yas is a clear example of someone saying, \u2018You have to eat s**t because I was forced to eat s**t.\u2019 That was something I experienced very closely first-hand when I started work. The idea of treating people a certain way because you were treated a certain way, and not giving them a free pass, is very strange and a bit sick, but definitely true of those hierarchical structures.\u201d<\/p> That pressure, explains Down, extends to an ambient expectation of working norms. \u201cThere are people willing to come in at eight o\u2019clock in the morning and leave at three in the morning, who clock up hundreds of hours a week. In respect of cycles of harm, that\u2019s the cycle of convincing a junior person it\u2019s a badge of honour to work that many hours at their desk. That perpetuates across the entire investment banking industry.\u201d<\/p>\n Striking techniques used to replicate Pierpoint\u2019s dizzying pace, which places the viewer in Harper, Yasmin and Rob\u2019s dazed and confused states, are the show\u2019s pulsating electronic score and overlapping background conversations. \u201cWe\u2019re immersing the viewer in the world the characters are immersed in,\u201d says Kay. \u201cThey\u2019re distracted by the constant sensory overload. There\u2019s always the next piece of business, the next line of coke, or the next person to sleep with.\u201d<\/p>\n Industry season 2 is available to watch in full now on\u00a0BBC iPlayer<\/a>\u00a0and continues on Tuesday at 10:40pm on BBC One.\u00a0<\/strong>Check out more of our\u00a0Drama<\/a>\u00a0coverage or visit our\u00a0TV Guide<\/a>\u00a0to see what\u2019s on tonight.<\/strong><\/p>\n The latest issue of Radio Times magazine is on sale now \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>subscribe now<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and get the next 12 issues for only \u00a31. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the\u00a0<\/strong>Radio Times podcast<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0with Jane Garvey.<\/strong><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n By Toby Earle Published: Tuesday, 11 October 2022 at 12:00 am This interview was originally published in\u00a0Radio Times magazine. Over an intense first season, Industry gained a splash of notoriety for scenes of sex and drug-taking with its portrayal of a group of graduates\u2019 hard-working and hard-partying City life. These paled in comparison with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":23563,"template":"","categories":[1,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/10\/industry-season-2-writers-discuss-the-finance-dramas-sensory-overload.jpg",1920,1280,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/10\/industry-season-2-writers-discuss-the-finance-dramas-sensory-overload-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/10\/industry-season-2-writers-discuss-the-finance-dramas-sensory-overload-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/10\/industry-season-2-writers-discuss-the-finance-dramas-sensory-overload-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/10\/industry-season-2-writers-discuss-the-finance-dramas-sensory-overload-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/10\/industry-season-2-writers-discuss-the-finance-dramas-sensory-overload-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/10\/industry-season-2-writers-discuss-the-finance-dramas-sensory-overload.jpg",1920,1280,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Toby Earle Published: Tuesday, 11 October 2022 at 12:00 am This interview was originally published in\u00a0Radio Times magazine. Over an intense first season, Industry gained a splash of notoriety for scenes of sex and drug-taking with its portrayal of a group of graduates\u2019 hard-working and hard-partying City life. 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