‘I lost a client’. This is a phrase which crops up from time to time on Industry, but as yet it has never quite had the gravitas as it does in the third season’s opening episode. The hyperactive and uber-problematic drama revolves around the appalling people who work for an investment bank called Pierpoint. Given that this show was created by two people from deep within that world (Mickey Down and Konrad Kay), you can only assume that they were truly burned by the experience; why else would they not conjure up a single likeable individual? Well, okay, perhaps Rob Spearing (Harry Lawtey) was designed to be our way in, a lad from the wrong side of the tracks who just wants to make a bit of money and gain some self-respect.

Yet, initially, Industry’s focus led us to believe that Harper Stern (Myha’la) would shape our point-of-view; this US graduate ran rapidly up the ladder, somehow earning the trust of a notorious hedge-fund entrepreneur who had made piles of loot out of covid. When that relationship crashed spectacularly, it was a mere matter of time before Harper would be let go, occurring at the grand finale via the man who was her de facto mentor, Eric Tao (played with a jittery fervour by Ken Leung).

As we meet Harper again, she’s reduced to taking messages and parking cars for bosses. But ever so slowly, she is trying to wheedle her way back in with financial bigwigs such as Petra Koenig, played by Sarah Goldberg (Rachel from Barry) who is joined in the Industry debutant ranks by Kit Harington. As Jon Snow he may have known nothing, but as privileged posh lad Henry Muck (this is a show that loves heaping possible meaning onto its surnames), a vague knowledge of economic theory has thrust him into the limelight as CEO of an ethical business and straight into Pierpoint’s crosshairs as they try to detoxify their own public image.

And what of Yasmin (Marisa Abela), who we last saw being metaphorically and pretty much actually dumped by her awful father who changed the locks and froze her account? As the opening episode opens to the sound of Simple Minds’ ‘New Gold Dream’, she seems to be awash in a fresh nightmare, once again trapped by daddy, this time on a boat named after her while he continues his lustful ways with any female who wanders in front of him.

We get it. Industry is jam-packed with rogues, rascals and reprobates. But by its third season, Down and Kay’s creation has enough fleshed-out characters and intriguing inter-relationships (we haven’t even mentioned Kenny, Rishi or Nicole) which can somehow cut through the emptiness of these people’s souls. If for even a second, you’d consider trading your own life for the methods which result in these characters’ bank balances to flourish, it might say more about you then it does about them.

Industry is on BBC Two on Tuesdays, with all episodes available on BBC iPlayer.