That new British show you love? There’s a fair chance it is being backed by a US studio. What’s behind the Americans’ sudden influence over our TV – and will it mean more Ted Lassos, and fewer Only Fools and Horses?
My favourite TV show of 2024 couldn’t be any more British if it tried. Set in a City investment bank violently buffeted by an omnishambolic treasury, soundtracked by wry, maudlin 1980s UK synthpop (Simple Minds, Pet Shop Boys) and featuring a character named Sir Henry Muck, Industry scans British society, from strip clubs and tabloids to private members’ establishments and country piles. Every second pulses with a lightly worn, razor-sharp fluency in British class and culture that can only be the product of a lifetime studying its dynamics. But the funny thing is, Industry isn’t really British at all.
Perhaps that’s a bit harsh. After all, Industry is – obviously – filmed here in the UK, has a predominantly British cast and is written by two Britons; erstwhile City boys Konrad Kay and Mickey Down. Yet this is a TV series that is essentially made by and for the US: Industry has two prominent American actors in its ensemble, premieres in the States and is funded by HBO, the network that almost single-handedly created prestige TV in the early 00s. The vibe may be British, but the money is not.
