Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, Dracula Meets the Wolf Man, Dracula Meets Frankenstein… Like these other great movie franchises before it, Insurance Age Meets Birmingham Brokers is now on to sequel number two (IAMBB3, as fans are calling it) and visitors to the IA website seemingly can’t get enough.
As regular habitués of the video section on the Ins Age site will recall, the basic plot of the IAMBB series involves mild mannered reporter Emmanuel K Enning travelling to Britain’s notorious second city to investigate the shady goings on within the local broking scene.
In IAMBB I and II he quizzes some men in suits from Bluefin, Lorica, Mitsui Sumitomi, Perkins Slade, Stewart Miller, Southall Hairies and Willis on how they’re liking the recession, what their clients are up to, the “state of the market”, risk management etc.
Interestingly they all said that whilst some of their competitors might be suffering a bit, they’ve actually done quite well in the current challenging climate. Most felt the market/the economy might remain quite tough for a bit, but that it might get a bit better sometime quite soon.
Enning does a remarkable job of remaining calm through all this, speaking exclusively through captions and offering only the gentlest of micro-nods by way of response to his interlocutors. His unchanging deadpan demeanour makes strangely compelling viewing.
IAMBB3 is a thrilling conclusion to the series, so densely packed with standout moments it’s hard to choose between them. Let’s pick out just two. Bankstone News has long wondered where Lorica found the inspiration for their mysterious logo. Turns out it’s modelled on the flowing locks of debonaire Birmingham Brunch Manager James Cellars (see visual evidence below).
Better still is the moment where Perkins Slade MD Corporate Darren Rogue, who predicted memorably in IAMBB2 that there would probably be further pigs and troughs before we emerge from recession, let slip that his firm is actively targeting the “nouveau riche”.
Traditionally, such jumped up parvenu individuals have probably felt more comfortable with terms such as High Net Worth or Executive Lifestyle. But fair play Darren, Bankstone News says, let’s call a spade a spade.
When a person owes their wealth to vulgar commerce rather than a feudal right to prey on the rural underclass that dates back to a Norman charter, there’s really no sense in pretending otherwise. No amount of choosing Rugby over football or joining the Sunday Times wine club can ultimately atone for flawed breeding.
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