CAPITAL - BBC 1 new drama starts Tuesday, November 24 at 9pm

[sadwidow28]

A new three part drama, Capital, starts on BBC 1 on 24th November and is expected to be one for all those London lovers.

In the new series, the residents of an affluent south London street struggle with their health, financial and family problems behind closed doors, watched by secretive artist Smitty, who has his own connection to the road.

The community is wary and stunned when dwellers each receive a note bearing the words `We Want What You Have', through their letterboxes, but in due course begin to see their lives transformed.

Toby Jones, Lesley Sharp, Wunmi Mosaku and Adeel Akhtar star in Peter Bowker's adaptation of John Lanchester's critically acclaimed novel.

Of course if Bogdan had gone to the Bank of England with all those old notes, they'd have wanted to know where he got them from. So he'd have been stuffed.

I'm still not quite sure why the young brother started the 'we want what you have' campaign. What was his motivation, and what did he want?

Funny about Mrs Kumal, because whilst I can see it's a stereotype, I found myself thinking last night how it's a set of characteristics often applied to Jewish mothers as well; also how like my mum, who is neither Jewish nor Indian, Mrs Kumal was. So it should really be a portrayal of a certain type of mother, irrespective of culture.

So just watched the last episode on catch up.

I still don't understand wtf all those "we want what you have" postcards were all about.

Bond exactly what I thought. Was expecting some sort of big reveal that explained everything but either I missed it or it wasn't there

Glad I'm not the only one who didn't quite get it......
Couldn't work out why Smitty's assistant and also the younger brother confessed to the postcards?

The money thing is the sort of device I think was intentional and they want us to suspend disbelief

I thought the Kamals were Pakistani?

I understood about the stupid motivation everyone had but Usman needs to check his own privilege in my opinion.

I feel a bit short-changed by the final episode. It was all a bit sudden to me. I didn't get what was happening with the cards, and what the point of them was.

I want to read the book now. Hope it fills some of the gaps.

The younger Kamal brother started the postcard campaign to make a futile sort of point about Western decadence then stopped when he realised people were so upset by it.

Smitty's assistant picked it up after he was sacked (in the book), went through a period of depression and then decided to get his own back by continuing it with a darker edge - dead animals, faeces etc.

None of the Muslim characters were actually planning any terrorist attacks (even Iqbal I think) but had looked at stuff on the internet and decided it wasn't really for them in practice.

After reading the book I felt that the 'We want what you have' campaign wasn't really the main point of the book but the character development was the most important thing, including Freddy Kamo the footballer who they missed out in the TV adaptation. Maybe that's why it felt like a bit of a let down to some people.

Yes, I was amazed by that story line about the notes. I have always known that the BofE will exchange them:

"Genuine Bank of England banknotes that have been withdrawn from circulation retain their face value for all time and can be exchanged at the Bank of England in London. There is no fee for this service. Banknotes of this type can be exchanged either by post or in person."

May be the mother (daughter) who is a nasty piece of work is just telling her son they aren't because she wants to keep them. I was half expecting the son's granny to have left him and not her daughter the house actually to held reduce inheritance tax risks.

I think I followed most of that last episode which I just watched. It certainly all came out as morally rights - didn't it? Illegal asylum seekers sent back to the air port and their own country; innocent Pakistani Britons all come good; awful wife stays with beleagured husband to nag him unto death; young lovers find love.

Some of the lines the banker's wife uttered were so barbed, so clever, so common sadly in that type of unhappy marriage.

I watchined it just after looking up a business contact's house in zoopla. He bought for a bit less than I paid around the same time 96/97 when I did but he was in Fulham and I was in outer London. His house has gone up 6x in value and mine about twice. Massive difference between inner and outer London.

I really must read the book.
The series has whetted my appetite.

Smitty's assistant jumped on the campaign after Smitty/Graham was quite mean to him and told him he needed to be more angry/show more edge and then he started sending the packages didn't he, as an escalation.

I did laugh at the brother's confession about writing on the road because 'I'd already bought the paint' Bless.

I didn't think Petunia's daughter came across as a nasty piece of work because I have read the book. She hadn't been all that close to her mother but found it difficult watching her die - who wouldn't. In the book she knows that the bank notes can be exchanged but thinks that it would be hard to explain where they came from and there would be tax on it. It doesn't say whether she actually exchanged them or not, maybe she did.

The writing on the road isn't in the book at all but there is some horrible graffiti done by Smitty's assistant.

I suppose the TV series should stand alone but once you've read the book with the full version of events and all the nuances it's hard accept the abridged version.

GG, I'm glad the book is right about the bank notes and I'm sorry the film wasn't becausde in a sense that makes you think the author got it wrong, so it's in a way defamatory of him.

she knows that the bank notes can be exchanged but thinks that it would be hard to explain where they came from and there would be tax on it

I have just finished reading the book - there were some very interesting characters who didn't feature in the TV series. I think the additional characters made the story - and message - more feasible.

Of course Mary will have to pay inheritance tax - she was receiving a multi-million pound family home anyway. It wasn't a case of capital gains - but money in the back of a fireplace is harder to explain.

My FIL bought a house for £1,750 (a 2-up / 2-down). He was one of the first people in the village the buy his own property - and that was winnings on the greyhounds! (I won't go into his greyhound racing as it still upsets me). It was sold to pay care-home bills and raised £87,000.

That was when DH and SIL cleared the house and found the OXO tin under his bed full of cash; over £3,000 in his stone cider jar; £100 stuffed here and there in wallets and boxes and tins. It was fully declared - but it was right karfulle!

My DH took £40 of old bank notes to the bank just last week and it was no problem.