The Hour (BBC TV series)

Plot (series one)

In the autumn of 1956, Freddie Lyon (Ben Whishaw) is a reporter unhappy with his job producing newsreels for the BBC. Desperate to get onto television, which he feels offers greater immediacy, Freddie is unaware that his best friend Bel Rowley (Romola Garai) has been selected by their mentor Clarence Fendley (Anton Lesser) to produce a new news magazine, the titular "The Hour". Rowley selects experienced war correspondent Lix Storm (Anna Chancellor) to head the foreign desk for the programme, leaving Freddie to run domestic news, a position which he considers inferior. For anchor of the programme, Clarence selects the handsome and patrician Hector Madden (Dominic West). They are joined by Thomas Kish (Burn Gorman), a mysterious and taciturn translator for the BBC who helps them cover the developing Suez Crisis.

As the team struggles to put the show together, Freddie is approached by Ruth Elms, the daughter of a member of the House of Lords who had employed Freddie's mother. She asks him to look into the murder of Peter Darrall (Jamie Parker), a college professor whom she knew. Soon after, Freddie finds her dead in her hotel room, an apparent suicide.

As the Suez Crisis escalates, the production team strives to report on British involvement in the crisis, despite pressure from the administration and in particular Angus McCain (Julian Rhind-Tutt) to present a sanitised narrative for the public. Freddie becomes more and more convinced that Peter Darrall and Ruth Elms were killed for some sinister reason. He discovers a secret message that Darrall tried to pass on before he was murdered: "Revert to Brightstone" and finds a movie reel depicting Ruth, Darrall, and Thomas Kish on holiday together. When confronted, Kish intimates that the government is behind the murder of Darrall and Elms, but he kills himself after a struggle with Freddie before the latter can learn more. Bel begins an affair with Hector. Hector's wife, Marnie (Oona Castilla Chaplin) finds out, telling Bel that she wasn't the first woman to have been with him since they married. After Clarence tells Bel that the affair threatens to ruin her career and damage the show, she calls it off.

As the Suez Crisis flares into armed conflict, Freddie learns that Darrall had been a communist spy and had been involved in a program to recruit bright and susceptible young people, referred to as "Bright Stones" to the Soviet cause. Ruth had been one of these Bright Stones and Kish had been sent by MI6 to keep tabs on them. Freddie also discovers that he is marked as a "Bright Stone". As British troops move to seize the Suez Canal, Freddie does a live interview of Lord Elms, Ruth's father, who denounces the government. However, as the interview goes out Clarence, at the insistence of higher-ups in the government, orders it to be taken off air halfway through the show. Bel is then fired by the BBC and Freddie confronts Clarence, who tells him that he had put him on the Bright Stone list, and that he is a Communist spy. He then tells Freddie to run this information as a news story. Freddie leaves the studio with Bel, telling her that they have a story to write.

Cancellation

The show was officially cancelled by the BBC on 12 February 2013. The BBC commented: "We loved the show but have to make hard choices to bring new shows through."

It was commented that while the show had received good reviews, its viewing figures were low and therefore a third series was not merited. The second series only managed to muster an average of 1.24 million viewers per episode, compared to the first series which managed an average of 2.02 million. For BBC2, primetime shows normally require an average audience of at least 1.75 million to be recommissioned.

Producers commented that they were upset to see the show cancelled, as they had plans for a third series.

Reception

Critical reception of the first episode was mixed, with Sam Wollaston of The Guardian expressing scepticism over a popular comparison with Mad Men, calling the episode a "slower starter" and "a bit of hotchpotch – Drop the Dead Donkey meets Spooks", but overall stating that "there's enough intrigue there to whet the appetite for more". However, AA Gill in The Sunday Times called it "Self satisfied guff" with "a script that would shame a Bruce Willis movie", and Michael Deacon of The Telegraph criticised it as "an exercise in upbraiding the past for failing to live up to the politically correct ideals of the 21st century", although he praised Morgan's writing and concluded by stating "I wouldn't want to give up on The Hour too soon". Even so, there were some criticisms of the script as being riddled with anachronisms, with the show's writer Abi Morgan admitting some lines "haven't worked".

The show was well received in its American premiere on BBC America, receiving an 81 on Metacritic, indicating "Universal Acclaim". Reviewing it for The New Yorker magazine, Nancy Franklin wrote that it is "almost absurdly gratifying. With its casting, its look, its unfolding mysteries, its attention to important historical events, its sexiness, The Hour hits every pleasure center." In the full printed version of the same article, she adds "[It is] as if it were a space containing chocolate, gold, a book you've always wanted to read, your favorite music, and the love of your life, who desires you unceasingly." Mary McNamara in the Los Angeles Times writes that the second season "improves its already stellar cast and grows in sophistication", and notes that, during its first season, "critics were divided — mostly by the Atlantic." Alyssa Rosenberg wrote in The Atlantic: "The Hour is not the British Mad Men: it's better."

Former founder member of ITN Lynne Reid Banks criticized the series for putting a more recent modus operandi into a period of the 1950s.

Awards and nominations

The series has been nominated for four Golden Globe Awards and four BAFTAs.

Broadcast

In the United States, this programme commenced screening on BBC America from 17 August 2011 each Wednesday at 10 pm E/P (9pm C). The programme commenced screening in Australia on ABC1 from 21 November 2011 each Monday at 8:30 pm, with episode one and two combined into a première movie-length airing. In Canada, this programme became available through Netflix in January 2012. In South Africa, this series has been acquired by M-Net to screen from 25 December 2012 at 8.30PM .