The latest episode of Industry is named ‘Eyes Without A Face’ after a Billy Idol ballad that soundtracks its climax, but it could comfortably be titled ‘Sweetpea’s Vindication’. After being slut-shamed and underestimated in season three of the gloriously overwrought banking drama, in which we first glimpsed her making a TikTok on the trading room floor, tenacious Sweetpea Golightly really shows her mettle in season four.
“Oh, she fully locks in. This is about agency over her narrative and proving she is capable,” says Miriam Petche, the 24-year-old actress who plays Sweetpea so brilliantly. It’s lunchtime in a buzzy London bar-restaurant and Petche, who is accompanied by her publicist, is talking perceptively and empathetically about the character who’s made her Industry‘s latest breakout star. It’s an enviable club that already includes Marisa Abela, Myha’la and Harry Lawtey, who left at the end of season three. “As we get to know Sweetpea, we see that she isn’t this, like, turbo-charged Gen Z stereotype. She has a lot of depth,” Petche says.
If you’re yet to watch ‘Eyes Without A Face’ after it aired yesterday (February 9), brace yourself for spoilers and some of Industry‘s signature financial jargon. The episode follows Sweetpea and Kwabena Bannerman (Toheeb Jimoh), her co-worker at short-only fund SternTao, as they head to Ghana on a high-stakes reconnaissance mission. Kwabena is laid-back and jovial in the country of his heritage, while Sweetpea is so laser-focused that he likens her to Erin Brockovich, the famous whistleblower played by Julia Roberts.
Launched by hyper-ambitious Harper Stern (Myha’la) and super-toxic Eric Tao (Ken Leung), the fund’s success is predicated on exposing the flaws in Tender, a disruptive banking app spearheaded by wily Whitney Halberstram (Max Minghella) and messy Sir Henry Muck (Kit Harington). By doggedly following a digital paper trail that Tender has deliberately made chaotic, Sweetpea uncovers a smoking gun: the app has massively inflated the value of its launch deals in Ghana. It’s a triumph of hype built on a house of cards.
The Ghana trip is make-or-break for SternTao and Sweetpea alike. “Harper was one of the few people who was willing to hire her. So if this short doesn’t work, it’s not like she can easily pack up and move on somewhere else,” Petche says. During the episode, we learn that Sweetpea has essentially been blacklisted by the financial industry after her OnlyFans account leaked. One web article misogynistically refers to her as a “city tart”. Midway through the episode, Sweetpea is shockingly physically assaulted, perhaps by someone connected with Tender, but she soldiers on with a broken nose.
“This whole assignment is very much about her sense of self,” Petche says. At this point, we’re interrupted by the manager, who says politely but firmly that we should have ordered food as well as drinks during the lunchtime rush. Petche smooths over this potentially awkward moment by saying she’ll remember this rule in the future, but she doesn’t let it disrupt her train of thought.
“Her competence is her currency in this world and I think this season – and particularly this episode – really explores what she relies on for external validation,” Petche says. When she joined Industry in season three, the actress created her own backstory for Sweetpea. “I don’t see her as having a financial net to fall back on. I don’t see her having a family that could support her in this lifestyle,” she says. Helpfully, the show’s co-creators Mickey Down and Konrad Kay confirmed that Sweetpea Golightly is the actual name on her birth certificate, not just a quirky moniker invented for TikTok.
“Sweetpea is always giving this performance of being fine and competent and strong,” Petche adds. “But just because someone is strong, it doesn’t mean they’re not deeply affected by what happens to them.” At the end of the episode, Sweetpea spurns a display of kindness from Harper, then returns alone to her swanky London flat where she bursts into tears. “I suppose, objectively, it looks quite sad, but I feel like it’s quite transformative for her,” Petche says. “It’s a purging, a shedding of a skin that has previously worked for her. From this moment on, she’s extremely direct with what she wants and what she’s worth. I think she reaches a different level of how she feels about herself.”
“I’d like to see Sweetpea go on a date. she deserves to meet someone nice”
Petche, who grew up in Brighton on England’s south coast but is now planning a move to London, says conveying Sweetpea’s maelstrom of emotions was also “transformative” for her as an actress. When she first read the script, her instant reaction was: “Wow. This is the most words I’ve ever said. It was extremely exciting.”
One of Industry‘s great strengths is the way it ricochets from a snakey character to a slightly more sympathetic one and back again, but this is the first time Petche has taken centre stage. “Watching the other actors steer the ship with so much grace and clarity and creativity, you do have these sort of silent moments to yourself where you think: ‘How would I drive the car if I was given that permission for a little while?'” she says. “It was deeply, deeply exciting and challenging for me as an actor. But I felt very ready to take it.”
Industry was Petche’s first job after graduating from London’s Guildhall School Of Music and Drama in 2023. When she began auditioning during her final year, Down and Kay asked if she was certain she wanted the part because it would involve leaving acting school a little early. “I was like, ‘If you guys want me, my bags are packed. I’m [mentally] on the trading floor already,'” she recalls bullishly.
However, she’s been acting professionally since she was 10, when she appeared in an episode of the BBC crime drama Vexed. At primary school in Brighton, Petche found it “very difficult” to focus on academic subjects but concentration wasn’t an issue when it came to creative arts. Performing with a local theatre group became Petche’s “respite” from school, which led to paid assignments. “It was fun. I would never have done acting if it didn’t feel like an enjoyable adventure,” she says.
Petche learned early on that near misses are part and parcel of an actor’s life. “I was auditioning pretty consistently as a child. I did some commercials, I did some pilot episodes that never went anywhere,” she says. In 2016, she acted with her future Industry co-star Marisa Abela in Runts, a play about “the sort of psychological warfare that girls can experience in high school”. When she and Abela reconnected seven years later on the Industry set, it felt like a “crazy” full-circle moment.
A year later, when she was 15, Petche landed her first substantial TV role in children’s fantasy drama The Worst Witch. Petche portrayed straight-A student Esmerelda Hallow in two seasons of the show, which was filmed during her school summer holidays, and says it crystallised her decision to pursue acting as an adult. “I had these moments on set, and I’ve had them multiple times on Industry, where I was like, ‘I can’t believe I get to do this as a job,'” she says.
Though The Worst Witch gave her solid experience, Petche saw an acting degree as a way of enriching her skill set and proving her commitment to an unpredictable career. “When I finished sixth form, I had a conversation with my family where I said: ‘I’m going to audition for the UK’s top drama schools, and if I get in, I’ll take that as a sign and go in all guns blazing,'” she says. Happily, she was accepted on her first attempt by Guildhall, whose alumni include Michaela Coel, Paapa Essiedu and Ewan McGregor.
They’re blazing even brighter now. Petche has recently filmed another TV series, ITV’s Believe Me, a true crime drama in which Daniel Mays portrays John Worboys, the serial sex offender known as the “Black Cab Rapist”. Unlike Sweetpea, who’s prone to what Petche affectionately describes as “word vomit”, the actress says she’s under such “strict no-speak [orders]” that she can’t even reveal who her character is.
So, what would she like to do next? “I’d love the physical and emotional challenge of doing stage work again. It’s something I haven’t put my body through since drama school,” she says. “You know, screen acting requires a different set of skills but stage is very, very intense in the best way. And I’m always drawn to characters who are complicated and have contradictions within themselves.”
Speaking of which, she has some ideas for Sweetpea if she returns for season five of Industry, which hasn’t been officially commissioned yet. “I would love to see her in a position of power and how she grapples with that,” Petche says. “Does she become the thing she dislikes in other people? Does she become similar to her learned behaviour?” Then Petche lightens the mood a little. “I mean, I’d also like to see Sweetpea go on a date. At this point, I think she deserves to meet someone nice.”
‘Industry’ series four continues on BBC One and BBC iPlayer
CREDITS:
Photographer: Craig Gibson
Styling: Sarah Harrison
Hair: Sophie Sugarman
Makeup: Sara Hill