Capital City

An amazing series which showcases the early acting talents of Douglas Hodge, William Armstrong (1), Jason Isaacs and Trevyn McDowell to name a few of the stars. Unfortunately it only had a relatively short run but in the 12/13 episodes the audience quickly becomes captivated by the antics and lives of a group of bankers and traders in Shane Longman, a modern snazzy bank in London. If the re-runs ever come back on - it is a "must-see"!

Series set in a trading room of a bank (Shane-Longman) dealing with the financial goings-on, but, of course, the personal lives of the people involved.

I remember it as very good, and never knew why it only ran for 2 seasons.

I watched this series regularly for about 3 months while I was in Jakarta, Indonesia. It was on the Star(?)TV Satellite network. That was in 1994. As I remember it, it was a great series and was obviously very captivating. This series is very well written and very entertaining. In some ways, the series reminds me of LaFemme Nakita, or the short lived series "The Consulate" or something like that about a US consulate in London. Someone should work toward finding the originals of this series and make copies available on videotape or even better yet, DVD's. If you have any news about this series returning to TV or becoming available via C-band satellite, please e-mail me Thanks.

Thankfully both series 1 & 2 are available on DVD and I have them both. At the time it was first shown on TV it was riveting to watch, very gritty, but it had the sparkle and fizz of the 80's London yuppies. I remember the 80's yuppy traders and ironically worked close to where the Shane-Longman building was in the new Broadgate development in London. They used Lehman's offices. It was next door to Liverpool Street Station. I once saw Douglas Hodge at London Marylebone station helping a blind man to his train. He even wore a Declan style trenchcoat in real life.

When I watch the show now on DVD it looks a little dated, mostly because the production quality was sadly lacking but the acting was first class and it really gave you a glimpse into the World of the 80's yuppies.

It could have had a longer run, but as I understand it, not enough people watched it, which killed it off. My understanding is that they wanted to scrap it after the first series, but they made a second after being inundated with letters of support for a series 2. I don't think the writers were adventurous enough and that added to insufficient viewers for Series 2 sealed its fate.

Shane-Longman, a mid-size, up-and-coming investment banking house in The City (akin to WallStreet) in London prides itself on its youthfull staff, and an uncanny ability to come through innovative, yet more than usual unconventional financial solutions. Although all the characters in the series come to the spotlight at one point, some might say the series resolves around the relationship of the two primary characters Declan McConnachie, a young, high-riding trader on the primaries desk, and Michelle Hauptmann, a vibrant trader with Shane's German branch, who is temporarily located in England. This series features some other notable actors like Rolf Saxon as the American attorney Hudson Talbot the Third, along with an apprehensive, and almost timid Saira Todd, playing Hillary Rollinger, a new trader, who comes under the wing of Michelle Hauptmann. Who would've thought that Saira Todd would later play a key role in Channel 4's "Queer as Folk!" Through the series, topics such as stress, drug-abuse, insider trading, homosexuality, and black-market trading are addressed through the experiences of the staff. In the United States, this series was originally distributed to PBS stations in the mid 1990s via the Program Resource Group. I eagerly await the series reruns.