Capital was a three part adaptation of a satirical book by John Lanchester and adapted by Peter Bowker as a modern Dickensian satire looking at class, race, immigration, greed and a London neighbourhood in a background of rising house prices.
Petunia is at 84 Pepys Road and lived here all her life and seems to have come to grips with the cosmopolitan nature of her neighberhood. She has a grandson who seems to be some type of Banksy style street artist and her daughter comes to stay with her and she knows that value of her house. The Ahmed's are second generation children of Pakistani immigrants who want to foster good relations with their customers but one of the brother's is showing signs of radicalisation.
Roger is an investment banker with a big house, big extension and plans to do more work in the house and maybe get a house in the country with his big bonus. His wife already has made plans to spend the bonus. They have kids that go to private schools and eastern European child minders. The series seems to have few regrets about investment bankers who bought the country to its knees a few years earlier.
In among the mix are an asylum seeker embroiled with the appeals system, Polish builders making a nice living with the constant demands for refurbishment from good cheap labour and who all interact with each other. They all start to get threatening letters and emails. Someone wants what they have and police are called in to investigate.
The film is a gentle satire but I felt light on plot. Maybe it could had been done as a two hours film. We kind of guess the Ahmed's will end up in trouble with the police when that long lost friend came to crash in their house for a few days.
However it was worth just to see Toby Jones face when he got that much lower than expected bonus. Later on his account to his bosses as to whether they actually understand what these mathematical geniuses that they employ to do the trading is rather prescient
