Metropolis is an eight-part British television drama series, created and written by playwright Peter Morgan, that first broadcast on ITV on 1 May 2000.

[1] Produced and directed by Glenn Wilhide, and co-directed by Tim Whitby, the series follows a group of former university graduates who leave Leeds to start a new life in London.

Despite gathering an adequate viewing audience, and moderately successful critical reviews,[3] a second series was not commissioned, with the failure to be recommissioned blamed on "haphazard scheduling" and the change in episode length.

[1] The series was later considered for an American re-make by Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas, but the pilot episode, filmed in 2008, was not picked up by ABC.

Atmospheric "big city" shots – trains snaking between high-rise buildings; offices overlooking the bustle of the streets; commuters swarming from the Underground – supply mood and context.

An eight-parter, airing twice weekly, Metropolis presents a cast of characters with obvious similarities to the first-year lawyers of This Life.

The gap between university ideals and job-market realities has always hit twentysomethings, and the atomisation of student friends when career concerns kick-in is a valid theme.

The three women, Charlotte (Louise Lombard), Sophie (Flora Montgomery) and Tanya (Emily Bruni) are, respectively, a junior financial hackette on a magazine, a researcher for the Conservative Party and an agony aunt.

[7] Mind you, unlike the richter-scale efforts of Texan Sue Ellen, Charlotte's lip tremors are tiny English quivers.