Created and written by Abi Morgan

Reviewed by Carmen Ferreiro-Esteban

In the desert landscape of end of summer TV, The Hour, a six hours miniseries running on BBC America Wednesdays at 10 PM, is a rarely good find.

The Hour takes place in 1956 London and follows two journalists friends, Freddie Lyon (Ben Whishaw) and Bel Rowley (Romola Garai) who, fighting the stiff suits that ran the BBC at the time, try to deliver political and worldwide news in an engaging way.

As the story starts, the BBC has approved a new news program, The Hour. Bel has been named producer and Freddie is about to be interviewed for the post of chief anchor. Freddie does not get the post though, and for once, his cockiness and unrepentant, strong opinions, are not the only reason. The post had already been given to Hector Madden (Dominic West), due to his family connections, and, possibly, his good looks.

Under Bel’s insistence Freddie joins The Hour as a journalist and, against her advice, investigates the deaths of a professor, who was more than it seemed, and of a young debutant who happened to be his childhood friend.

Spies, corrupt politicians (a repetion according to Mark Twain), rampant sexism, a love triangle in the making, and enough plot twists to keep the viewer guessing make this compelling drama a must see.

Although the story takes place in 1956, many of the complaints about politicians, world politics and TV news sound eerily familiar.

As for the role of women, back then, well, they were second class citizen as the following video reminds us.

http://videos.bbcamerica.com/category/1078379525001/The-Hour/1064121672001/The-Hour/

What else is new?



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