Industry writers say season 2 is better after "learning curve" of debut

"We're very much our own worst critics," Kay told RadioTimes.com in an exclusive interview, adding that he and Down were eager to "tell better stories" against the backdrop of cutthroat finance.

"The first season was big on vibe, character, had some good dialogue, some fun sex, [and] had an overall aesthetic which maybe felt like a bit of a breath of fresh air, which is maybe why people reacted so positively to it," Kay said. "But we thought, as the writers of the show, we could tell more exciting, thrilling, corporate intrigue [and] corporate politics stories within that space.

"The show's about power on some level, and there's no reason why we couldn't have a bit of a Game of Thrones-y, 'Who's gonna take whose seat?' kind of feel to it."

The biggest lesson the pair learnt after tackling the show's debut was, Kay said, "to have a more powerful story engine and to burn through more story quicker".

"By the time you've watched the first three episodes of season 2, I think you'll find that there's... and I don't mean this in a pejorative way, but there's just more plot," Kay continued.

"So therefore all the watchability factor of season 1 is there: the actors have actually improved off a very high base, the soundtrack is very similar, I think we've upped the directorial style... and I just think me and Mickey, we were very inexperienced coming into season 1. Between season 1 and season 2, the learning curve was so steep that we had no choice, really, but to sprint up.

"I think the show has benefited massively from me and Mickey learning between season 1 and season 2 what [the show] was and how to write it."

Though the talented, sharp-witted but flawed Harper Stern (Myha'la Herrold) remains arguably the show's lead character, Down and Kay identified two other figures among the show's sizeable ensemble cast that they wanted to showcase in the second season.

"We wanted to see more of Yasmin," Down said. "We felt as a a character that she was slightly underserved in season 1 and we love writing her – she feels like a really true representation of a certain kind of person in London, and Marisa Abela who plays her is just a truly phenomenal actress.

"Obviously, Harper was going to be the beating heart of the show in some respects, so focusing the story through those two women felt like a no brainer for season 2."

Alongside's Abela's enterprising, privileged graduate, Harper's unpredictable mentor Eric (Ken Leung) also gets an expanded role.

"Ken, who plays Eric, was just an untapped resource in season 1," Down added. "We had this amazing actor that we weren't using enough and who has a relationship with our main character which felt like it was sort of bedrock of the show, and we just wanted to see more of him."

The writing duo – whose own backgrounds working in the financial sector as graduates partly inspired Industry – might have had their own ideas about what a second season would tackle, but the unexpected arrival of a global pandemic also ended up shaping the new episodes in ways they couldn't have predicted.

Kay said it was "a big thing" deciding how heavily to feature in the COVID-19 in season 2 – which does, ultimately, begin with the traders at Pierpoint and Co returning to their offices after a long break, while a major new character, Jesse Bloom (played by Jay Duplass), is a hedge fund manager who made a huge profit from the pandemic.

"To omit it would have felt very strange from a contemporary workplace drama – we were saying that we were dealing with contemporary workplace issues, contemporary banking storylines, so you can't just ignore the biggest thing," Kay said.

"But the time elapsing between when you write something and when you shoot something and when it airs can be 18 months, so you're trying to predict the future a little bit."

Though the immediate impact of the pandemic isn't explored, the events of the previous two years cast a shadow over the new Industry "as a kind of psychological trauma or non-trauma that all of the characters have been through" – though, of course, each of the cast has experienced a different kind of pandemic.

Yasmin, we learn in episode 4, spent her time in lockdown becoming "obsessed with finding the perfect white pyjamas", while Harper's anxiety leads her to initially fight back against a return to the office.

Kay explained: "She's using it actually as an excuse to not have to deal with some of the consequences of her decisions in season 1 – in a way, it's been very bad for her, but she's loved being hermetically sealed into a hotel room, because she can just do her job and not have to deal with anybody.

"So with all these little things, we thought if it can somehow be built into the character, it can feel super interesting. But the actual work storylines and the plot, we always had a hard and fast rule in the writers room where they were not going to be pandemic-led. It's sort of pandemic adjacent."

Industry season 2 begins tonight at 10:40pm on BBC One and is available to watch in full now on BBC iPlayer. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide to see what's on tonight.

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