The pilot episode of the much-hyped new TV series ‘Billions’ raked up almost three million viewers on debut in January of this year, which was a new record for Showtime. It is a sort of ‘Wall Street’ for a post Global Financial Crisis (GFC) audience. Damian Lewis heads the cast together with Paul Giamatti – and, the often parsimonious, IMDb has awarded the programme a premium 8.4 score.
Lewis’s character Bobby Axelrod is an ambitious hedge fund manager and the sole survivor of the part-eponymous, Axe Capital, during the 9/11 attacks.
Bobby is clever, charismatic and charitable (but not whiter than white). He is also very rich, lives in a nice house and knows what ‘billions’ is/are – and has a few himself; albeit these billions tend to slip in and out of his grasp, as is their wont.
The UK Housebuilding Sector is also ambitious and survived the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the ensuing Global Financial Crisis. Similarly, it is smarter and wealthier than it has ever been; and, yes, charitable but not atramentous. It is also in award-winning form, which is a good job as it acts out another palpable crisis – the Brexit vote – and a £9 million loss of value in six trading days. But do not despair.
