The Mayfair Set is a series of programmes produced by Adam Curtis

Adam Curtis

Adam Curtis is a British BAFTA winning documentarian and a writer, television producer, director and narrator. He works for BBC Current Affairs.-Early life and education:Curtis was born in 1955...

 for the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

, first broadcast in the summer of 1999.

The programme looked at how buccaneer capitalists of hot money

Hot money

Hot money is a term that is most commonly used in financial markets to refer to the flow of funds from one country to another in order to earn a short-term profit on interest rate differences and/or anticipated exchange rate shifts...

 were allowed to shape the climate of the Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...

 years, focusing on the rise of Colonel David Stirling

David Stirling

Colonel Sir Archibald David Stirling, DSO, DFC, OBE was a Scottish laird, mountaineer, World War II British Army officer, and the founder of the Special Air Service.-Life before the war:...

, Jim Slater, James Goldsmith

James Goldsmith

Sir James Michael "Jimmy" Goldsmith was an Anglo-French billionaire financier and tycoon. Towards the end of his life, he became a magazine publisher and a politician. In 1994, he was elected to represent France as a Member of the European Parliament and he subsequently founded the short-lived...

, and Tiny Rowland

Tiny Rowland

Roland "Tiny" Rowland was a British businessman and chairman of the Lonrho conglomerate from 1962 to 1994...

, all members of The Clermont

Clermont Set

The Clermont Set was an exclusive group of rich British gamblers who met at the Clermont Club at 44 Berkeley Square, in London's fashionable Mayfair district now located at 27-28 Curzon Street and called Aspinall's. It was the first London casino opened by John Aspinall after he won the gaming...

 club in the 1960s. It received the BAFTA Award for Best Factual Series or Strand in 2000. http://web.archive.org/web/20041019021706/http://www.bafta.org/television/archive_2000.htm

Part 1: Who Pays Wins

The opening episode, Who Pays Wins, focuses on Colonel David Stirling

David Stirling

Colonel Sir Archibald David Stirling, DSO, DFC, OBE was a Scottish laird, mountaineer, World War II British Army officer, and the founder of the Special Air Service.-Life before the war:...

.

Part 2: Entrepreneur Spelt S.P.I.V.

The rise of Jim Slater who became famous for writing an investment column in The Sunday Telegraph under the nom de plume of The Capitalist.

Part 3: Destroy the Technostructure

This episode recounts the story of how James Goldsmith

James Goldsmith

Sir James Michael "Jimmy" Goldsmith was an Anglo-French billionaire financier and tycoon. Towards the end of his life, he became a magazine publisher and a politician. In 1994, he was elected to represent France as a Member of the European Parliament and he subsequently founded the short-lived...

 became one of the richest men in the world.

Part 4: Twilight of the Dogs

By the 80s, the day of the buccaneering tycoons was over. Tiny Rowland

Tiny Rowland

Roland "Tiny" Rowland was a British businessman and chairman of the Lonrho conglomerate from 1962 to 1994...

, James Goldsmith

James Goldsmith

Sir James Michael "Jimmy" Goldsmith was an Anglo-French billionaire financier and tycoon. Towards the end of his life, he became a magazine publisher and a politician. In 1994, he was elected to represent France as a Member of the European Parliament and he subsequently founded the short-lived...

 and Mohamed Al-Fayed

Mohamed Al-Fayed

Mohamed Abdel Moneim Al-Fayed is an Egyptian businessman and billionaire. Amongst his business interests are ownership of the English Premiership football team Fulham Football Club, Hôtel Ritz Paris and formerly Harrods Department Store, Knightsbridge...

were the only ones who were not finished.

External links

• The Mayfair Set on the IMDb