The Mayfair Set, subtitled Four Stories about the Rise of Business and the Decline of Political Power, is a BBC television documentary series by filmmaker Adam Curtis. It explores the decline of Britain as a world power, the proliferation of asset stripping in the 1970s, and how buccaneer capitalists helped to shape the climate of the Thatcher years, by focusing on Colonel David Stirling, Jim Slater, Sir James Goldsmith and Tiny Rowland—members of London's elite Clermont Club in the 1960s. It won a BAFTA Award for Best Factual Series or Strand in 2000. Curtis wanted to engage with the moral ambiguity of figures such as Goldsmith.

Episodes

Part 1. 'Who Pays Wins'

The opening episode focuses on Colonel David Stirling and the birth of the global arms trade in the 1960s. Originally broadcast on 18 July 1999.

Contributors

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

The rise of accountant, game theorist and asset stripper Jim Slater, who became famous for writing an investment column in The Sunday Telegraph under the nom de plume of The Capitalist. Originally broadcast on 25 July 1999.

Contributors

Part 3. 'Destroy the Technostructure'

This episode tells the story of how Sir James Goldsmith, through a series of corporate raids, became one of the world's richest men, and a victim of his own success. Originally broadcast on 1 August 1999.

Contributors

Part 4. 'Twilight of the Dogs'

By the late 1980s, the day of the buccaneering tycoon was over. Tiny Rowland, Sir James Goldsmith and Mohamed Al-Fayed were the only ones left. Originally broadcast on 8 August 1999.

Contributors