News on 'The Hour' from 1956

BBC2’s ‘The Hour’, set in a BBC newsroom in the pivotal year of 1956 (Suez, transition from post-war austerity into the 60s), looks great. The first episode had everything: shadowy ‘spooks’, raffish presenters (Dominic West’s going to storm this one), feisty female producers and journalists, police bribery, a sharp ‘look and feel’ of 1950s London and a large element of not knowing what’s going on (a seeming prerequisite for much of contemporary TV drama). The casting is superb: while the technology seems quaint, BBC managers may not have changed that much in 60 years; personality types endure and there’s some fine acting about in ‘The Hour’s portrayal of the BBC top brass. Ramola Garai and Ben Whishaw are outstanding as Bel and Freddie, a high flying producer and keen sleuth-hound respectively.  BBC television news, up to the mid 1950s, consisted of tales of debtante engagements and obsequious interviews with Prime Ministers. The cultural change that took place in a hugely class conscious society has been well documented, and ‘The Hour’ captures an era where the winds of change are soon to blow.  Who knows, and 'thetvreviewguy' certainly doesn't, where ‘The Hour’ will go? Light and shade are hard tones to carry separately, let alone together in a TV drama. But please let's have a stop to British critics saying that the only good shows are American; there's plenty of writing, acting, directing and production talent outside of the US, operating on a fraction of some of the budgets in the States. For 'thetvreviewguy', this was a most enjoyable 'Hour'.