Industry review: This BBC finance and sex drama is a great show about some awful people

And, to be honest, despite a year passing – in drama terms at least, series three actually aired more than 18 months ago – Harper, Yazmin, Eric and the rest don't seem to have moved on.

Ex-pat US trader Harper (Myha'la Herrold) is still chafing against authority, balanced only by the chips on both shoulders – although she is constantly battling racial and sexual prejudice, as well as the labyrinth of the British class system.

Yazmin (Marisa Abela) has traded the straight-jacket of her obnoxious father for a similarly gilded cage with the literal Lord Muck (Kit Harington), using her connections to bring the city and Westminster together.

Rishi (Sagar Radia) – who was last seen with his wife's blood all over his face after loan shark Vinay (played with a chilling bonhomie by People Just Do Nothing's Asim Chaudry) had made a shocking house call – is now reduced to nicking the phones of braying SPADs in the hope of getting insider intel to pass on to Harper.

So they all seem to be a in a state of stasis, but by the end of this first episode of series four, the pieces have already fallen into place for them all to take a great leap forward.

It's a great testament to this series that the characters have matured – in a way – since we first met them as trainees at big city broker Pierpoint.

Meanwhile, creators Mickey Down and Konrad Kay have introduced new characters and plotlines with barely a missed beat, giving Harper, Marisa and the rest new challenges and new ways to discover how their original intentions can veer wildly off course through ambition, greed, love, sex and all the other stuff that makes for good drama.

And it's also a testament to the growing success of Industry that they can attract some big names as guest stars.

Stranger Things' Charlie Heaton has joined on as investigative journalist Jim Dycker, on the trail of banker Whitney Halberstram - another new guest star, Max Minghella.

Then there's Mad Men's Kiernan Shipka as Halberstram's assistant Hayley, Kal Penn (from House MD), and Ted Lasso's Toheeb Jimoh.

And they all get enough to get their teeth into, as the plot touches on hot button topics including the mainstreaming of porn, online safety and the way 'aggregators' can absolve themselves of any responsibility for the content they put up.

And that's before we get to the uneasy symbiosis between the economic powerhouse in the city, and the political powerhouse in Westminster, and the revolving door between them.

And it's all done with some creative swearing, a sprinkling of fintech jargon and the sense that nothing is off-limits if it can be used as leverage.

The dialogue contains some stodgy lines, but when Halberstram says things like “late capitalism is a carcinogen that breeds a product for everything you think you need except the thing you want”, you get the feeling he knows it's empty rhetoric, but he likes the way it sounds coming out his mouth.

It's symptomatic of the characters, constantly striving to be in control of their jobs, their money, their lives, putting on a front, but constantly brought low – or lower at least – by the massive bookies' shop that is the city of London.

Very few of the characters have noble intentions, but at least some of them acknowledge that – even Eric (played by the brilliant Ken Leung) knows he can't function without the rush provided by trades, which is why he heeds Harper's call to come out of retirement and help her out of a corner.

Industry is a misnomer for this series, of course. None of these people make things, really build worthwhile businesses.

They break almost everything they touch – and it's a lot of fun watching them do it.