The Mayfair Set: Entrepreneur Spelt S.P.I.V.

The Mayfair Set is a series about a group of reckless gamblers and chancers who all belonged to a notorious gambling club in the 1960s - the Clermont Club. All of them, without intending it, were instrumental in changing the structure of political power in Britain. Through their interwoven lives, the series tells the story of one of the most fundamental changes we have lived through in the past 30 years-the rise to power of the financial markets and the decline of politics. This installment, Entrepreneur Spelt S.P.I.V. is about Jim Slater, a suburban accountant, who realized that if he harnessed the sleeping powers of the shareholders, he would gain immense power. He and a group of other tycoons like James Goldsmith and Tiny Rowland awoke the dormant power of the market and used it to rip apart the old partition world that had dominated Britain for a hundred years. He was turning the stock market into a monster that would overwhelm the politicians. The documentary as elegant, witty, personal socio-political essay. The work of Adam Curtis is instantly recognizable, persuasive, ironic without hectoring, a thesis based on a case history.