Why BBC drama Industry is blazing a trail for sex on screen

It is a landmark moment for  prime-time BBC drama — a scene showing unashamed, mutually enjoyable sex where a woman is, to put it bluntly, straddling a man’s face. But Industry is a show about getting what you want and after an arduous day on the trading floor, Harper wants a shag. It’s a relief in some ways — the American intern has spent three episodes pining after some “English d*ck”, so much so that at one desperate point she resorts to w***ing over a video of Joey Essex.

If you thought Normal People was x-rated with its BDSM sessions, look away now. Banking drama (or should that be bonking drama?) Industry has upped the ante — the men parade around the house with everything hanging out, they sext liberally and when they aren’t making millions or snorting cocaine, they have their faces buried between women’s thighs. In the capitalist spirit of the show, you could make a tidy sum if you were given a tenner for every time a man went down on a woman. It’s equal opportunity raunchiness — there are plenty of blow jobs too, mainly given by Robert to fellow intern Gus. Gus is gay, Robert is just chronically horny.

It may all sound titillating, but actually Industry is moving the dial, with women confidently asking for what they want.  The first episode was directed by Lena Dunham, who was one of the first to show us realistic sex in Girls, in all its awkward glory, and the series has all the trademarks of her unfiltered approach. The Industry women make the Sex and the City cast look like Stepford Wives, sappy and disappointingly needy. Here, women aren’t desperate for co-dependent relationships, they orgasm and then wave the men out the door. In fact, after Harper has sex she just wants to talk money with her female flatmate — this is a show that aces the Bechdel test, where two women are seen talking about something other than a man. Both women and men initiate sex — just like in the real world! It isn’t always pretty  or romantic (unless you’re into the bathroom floors of scuzzy nightclubs), and, brace yourselves, the women don’t have orgasms every time.  

Of course there are those who can’t handle the heat. The Sun called the show “gratuitous and embarrassing” (ahem, in comparison to Page Three?). But Industry is more than just turn on TV.

Admittedly it is a show about callous, ruthless people so it would be out of character if pursuit of one’s own pleasure wasn’t the central goal but why shouldn’t women and men be seen enjoying themselves? Just be careful who you watch it with. It’s the anti-social distancing drama and one viewer says she watches Grand Designs afterwards to calm down.  

“It wasn’t like we were thinking about anything particularly radical,” says Konrad Kay, who created the show with his friend Mickey Down, inspired by their time in the City. “But there has been a tendency in TV history to pathologise women’s sexuality — especially when it’s casual and purely driven by desire — as somehow less socially acceptable than a man’s. We wanted to eradicate this.”

They have fun with it — particularly with Yasmin, a grad who knows the power she has over men. She takes out her frustration at being belittled at work on fellow grad Robert, who clocks her in the gym (she barely breaks a sweat). She reels him in then delivers the most devastating put down of the year, no spoilers but it involves some “eating out” based wordplay (topical in the year of eat out to help out).

Gym scenes aside, Kay says they kept it realistic. “The touchstone of Industry was authenticity at every point. This wasn’t an attempt to shock, it was simply fulfilling the mandate of verisimilitude we set ourselves at the get-go. The sex should feel true to life, not sanitised or televisual.”

Consent was “very high up on the agenda”, adds Kay. Harper — in a heroic performance by the deceptively innocent-looking Myha’la Herrold — asks for a condom and we see how devastating it is when boundaries are crossed between clients and traders. There was an intimacy co-ordinator, Miriam Lucia, to make sure the cast and crew were comfortable. “The cast of Industry were young,” says Lucia. “For some of them, this was their first job since drama school and so the role of the intimacy co-ordinator became even more essential. We welcome and invite the “no”, establish where the boundaries are and create a professional structure within them. This allows the actor to be able to do what they do best, and that is act.” Lucia also worked on the coital choreography, to make sure it is believable and in line with the plot.  

The sex scenes were meticulously written out and often story-boarded. Kay says: “We wanted to ensure every sex scene earned its place and was driven by character and what the interaction said about the character in that moment, be it sensual respite after the anxiety of work, or a reclaiming of power having lost it in the office. There isn’t a single sex scene in the show that doesn’t speak to the inner lives of the characters, or doesn’t say something about them.”

Harry Lawtey, who plays Robert, describes the show’s sex scenes as “always interesting, complex and often silly and funny”. He adds: “What’s important is that there was a support network. The new generation of actors are reaping the rewards of the work of those who have come before us, in getting systems in place so that we have the support and understanding to do our best work.”