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A new thriller starring Patrick Dempsey delves into the sinister yet seductive side of banking after the 2008 financial crisis
Our 52-page guide includes Jaci Stephen’s Soap Watch, your essential Movie Planner and a sneak preview of gripping new financial crash drama Devils
After the financial crisis of 2008, bankers were the people everyone loved to hate. Devils, a glossy new drama about the events which followed the crash, shows us why.
The series, starring Grey’s Anatomy heartthrob Patrick Dempsey, follows a group of bankers as they gamble and plot, drinking cocktails in glossy bars, as the economies of European countries collapse around them. They all appear to be Devils – but who is the biggest Devil of all?
Based on a bestselling novel by Italian former banker Guido Maria Brera, and featuring footage of real events – such as the fall of Colonel Gadaffi in Libya – Devils reveals banking’s sinister side.
At the heart of the ten-part Sky Atlantic thriller, set in London and Rome, is the relationship between Patrick Dempsey’s American bank boss Dominic Morgan and his ambitious trader Massimo Ruggero (Alessandro Borghi), an Italian who works in London. Massimo has been like a son to Dominic and his wife Nina (Kasia Smutniak) since the death of their only child, but that doesn’t mean the men can rely on each other.
Massimo is favourite to beat his rival Edward Stuart (Ben Miles) to a promotion until a scandal involving his ex-wife scuppers this and Massimo is then fingered for murder. The action follows Massimo as he works with his mentor Phillip
Wade (Ken Stott) and conspires with activist hacker Sofia Flores (Laia Costa) to get to the truth.
‘The stakes are so high, what they’re doing in the banks is affecting whole nations,’ says Patrick Dempsey. ‘We see the effect on people on the streets when the banks take massive gambles. We see how the working-class population of the UK is affected, how a small fishing village in Italy is affected – the tragedy that ensues.
‘Dominic and Massimo have known each other for 20 years. It’s a very complicated relationship where he needs Massimo in order to keep control. And I think the vulnerability of that is his weakness. So when Massimo lets him down it’s a real disappointment.’
Writer Guido Maria Brera, who
still works in finance and has written several books about it, says he was inspired to create Devils after the Greek crisis caused a financial earthquake in the Eurozone.
‘Since the 1980s, finance has been described as a wild frontier, beaten by unscrupulous adventurers,’ he says. ‘It was the time of Gordon Gekko, of Reagan’s New York and its showier side: women, excesses, big bluffs and insider trading, stock trading, daring and dizzying raids.
‘The men that embody the essence of finance today are different from old traders. They are invisible, hate excess and do not violate the law because they have the strength that allows them to dictate it.’ Devils begins on Wednesday at 9pm on Sky Atlantic.