With this BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play writer Mike Walker explores the hedge fund world. This is right up to the minute sort of topical theater. We have been getting few of these in the last few months. The best of the lot has been Development by Doug Lucie, which told a more personal family story set in tough economic times. This one has elements of the Madoff case. In a way it might fulfill the fantasy of some looking for a comeuppance for Mr. Madoff and his type.
There is a good scene where our protagonist goes to visit a very dreamy Bob Glass, the Madoffish character. Glass talks about wanting to be close to nature, and other very rudimentary sort of philosophical things. It is the simple minded babble of one who lived completely outside of the real world, someone who only cared about making money. The scene reminds of a convict coming to Christ while in the can. But Glass is too much a sophisticated NY'er to go for Jesus. so it is nature and the ocean instead.
In this play "the little guy" makes no appearance. This is all about the powerful people who apparently with the winning combination of ignorance and greed have put many of us in a very bad position.
I really do like these new depression dramas and hope the BBC keeps them coming. I have a feeling that they are going to have a long shelf life, a lot longer that a lot of us are going to be comfortable with.
