Bankers ‘neither villains nor rock stars’, says Industry creator

Wall Street, American Psycho, The Wolf of Wall Street… for decades, the image of the banker has loomed large in popular culture.

And after the 2008 financial crisis, the reputation of finance workers took a big hit, according to one of the creators of banking drama Industry.

Konrad Kay, who co-writes the series, says bankers faced a “lazy” and “villainous stereotype” at the time – with a perception that they needed “bringing down a peg or two”.

Industry is a critically-acclaimed drama set inside the fictional London office of Pierpoint & Co, a prestigious, high-pressure, sex-and-drug-fuelled international investment bank. It is now airing its third series.

Critics have called the series – that introduces new character Sir Henry Muck, a hyper-privileged eco-entrepreneur played by Game of Thrones star Kit Harington – an “excitingly ornate rollercoaster” and “more thrilling than ever”.