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Cometh The Hour, cometh the women

33 comments

Sarah Cheverton
WVoN co-editor

Yes, this is a raving review of the new BBC series The Hour.

Yes, I know that it has been receiving lukewarm reviews from the broadsheets, but who are established TV critics and writers to judge?

Yes, I know that the viewer numbers are declining week on week, but who are the British viewing public to judge?

No seriously, who are they to judge?

To date, there have been over 22 series of Big Brother including the could-TV-be-more-wrist-slashingly-dire-than-this-I-want-to-kill-my-eyes spin offs, and it’s coming back on Channel ‘Supporting the dignity of women everywhere’ Five this year.

Besides, the Daily Mail hate it, and that’s actually all I need to know about anything to love it immediately.

Ok, so maybe I do have a crush on Freddie Lyon (admirably played by Ben Whishaw)the size of Greater London, even though or perhaps especially because he sounds a little bit like Michael Caine, but it’s not just the hormones talking.

But before I go any further, a warning. I’m not your normal TV reviewer and I’m not going to rehash the story so far so you don’t feel left out.

If you want someone to hold your hand and walk you through the series, stretch your sad paws no further than Google, or better still, watch the damn thing – did I mention it’s on iPlayer?

Freddie Lyon, the lead character, brings to mind a sort of 1950s Steig Larsson or his fictional counterpart Mikael Blomkvist.

An outsider who has defied the class barriers of his time to become a successful-at-the-margins broadcast journalist, Lyon is outspoken, difficult and driven by a need for fairness and justice.

He’s exactly the sort of journalist I’ve wanted to be since I was pre-birth, and he’s smartly written, beautifully played and a pleasure to watch – ok, ok, I did tell you I had a crush on him.

But more to the point here – at least until I’m alone with BBC iPlayer – The Hour has some great female leads, in terms of writing, casting and acting.

Producer Bel Rowley played by Romola Garai, is a woman breaking the glass ceiling of the fifties to lead a new topical news show, The Hour.

Sound unlikely? Well, not so my cynical viewing comrades.

For those of you a bit behind on your broadcast news gender history, a bit of reading about Grace Wyndham Goldie, wouldn’t go amiss.

She joined the BBC in the 1940s, established a range of programmes including Tonight and Panorama and launched the careers of some of our most famous broadcast journalists, including Robin Day, David Frost and Richard Dimbleby.

Collectively, they became known as The Goldie Boys – I kid you not.

You want to watch The Hour now, don’t you?

But Bel’s not the only woman to watch in the show.

Supplying the laughs as well as built-in gravitas is the inimitable Anna Chancellor as Lix – The Hour’s Foreign Correspondent, who is  currently leading the show through ground-breaking coverage of the Suez Crisis.

Lix has some of the best lines, including: “Whisky is god’s way of telling us he loves us and wants us to be happy.”

Lix may well also be based on Grace Wyndham Goldie in part, as Panorama also faced its own problems covering the Suez Crisis.

But the real surprise for me is Oona Chaplin playing socialite wife, Marnie Madden.

In a few of the reviews I’ve read, Marnie Madden has been written off as the stereotypical spoiled and shallow poor little rich girl, but Chaplin’s performance consistently brings real depth to this character.

As any woman who has ever suspected her husband or partner of cheating will know, what you say with your eyes rather than your mouth speaks volumes, and mine are glued to Chaplin – even when she’s in the background – in every scene.

These fantastic female characters spring fully-formed and intellectually delicious from the pen of Abi Morgan, who we should all remember for the hard-hitting drama Sex Traffic in 2004 – still available from the fantastic resource that is 4OD.

“…the challenges of the time remain oddly unchanged,” writes Morgan, “The struggles with fidelity, professional jealousies and political ambition are as rife now as they were in 1950…”

They certainly are, particularly with Freddie investigating a Hackgate-esque tip-of-the-iceberg conspiracy of corruption involving the law, the media and the government.

So why is The Hour getting such a slam-dunking?

To be honest, beats me, because I really don’t think it deserves it.

Many critics feel the social messages – class disadvantage, sexism, racism – are too much “tell” and not enough “show”. But actually, this is one of the things I like about it.

The show has drawn the inevitable comparison with Mad Men – in my view not a comparison that applies here, and no offence to either show intended – which shows its gender injustice far more than it tells about it.

Yet I’m drawn to The Hour particularly because some – and certainly not the majority – of its characters voice their desire for a world that’s better.

Moreover, the existence of real-life characters such as Grace Wyndham Goldie tells us that this isn’t as far from the truth as the Daily Mail would have us believe.

In his review, Peter Hitchens writes scathingly about The Hour for refusing to portray a period as it actually was and instead portraying the fifties as the writers wish it had been.

According to Hitchens, in the fifties:

“Men really were courteous to women, and women – including educated women – genuinely expected to get married and have children and saw nothing wrong in that.

“The men wore blue or grey suits (often shabby) and knotted their ties tightly. Most women – particularly in offices – were compelled to be fairly dowdy by the general shortage of money. Career advancement came very slowly, and so deference was common in offices.”

And your dinner was always on the table at six sharp, by 8.15 you could be sure of satisfaction while your wife lay back and thought of England, and by 8.22 you’d be sipping contentedly at your cocoa.

Yes, yes, Mr Hitchens, tuck yourself in, try not to dribble and we’ll find a re-run of The Good Life somewhere on cable.

But back in the real world, the rest of us are busy dealing with the very real complexity of truth – in the present as much as in the past.

And where my taste for drama is concerned, I’m quite happy to last out The Hour while we do.

  1. Christine Smeets says:

    I have no idea how many people in the Netherlands watch the program, but I for one have been glued to the screen. Sarah Cheverton, you are absolutely spot on with your review!
    But it takes intelligence and a love of drama to see the intrinsic value of the hour and to appreciate the often subtle acting and understated dialogue. Last night, the phone call from Marnie to Bel about her wall paper tiff with her husband: a woman telling the mistress: I know but he is still my husband. Wonderful!

    As for Mr. Hitchens and his idealised view of the fifties: nothing much has changed when I read in the DM today that Jeremy Irons thinks a pat on the bottom is to be interpreted by a woman as friendly communication.
    The hour brings out the cracks in society, gender roles and personalities, and that applied to the fifties as much as it applies today.

    I can’t wait for the final episode and I will be ordering the DVD.
    The hour is already a classic for me.

    Christine, The Hague

    • I must admit I hadn’t even heard of this programme before Sarah wrote her review but have been glued to it ever since. I’ve now watched the first two episodes and am really looking forward to catching up with the third. It’s a gripping drama with women playing central roles that are not based on how often they take their clothes off. The sexism is brilliantly portrayed and I just loved it when Ms Rowley wiped the floor with that smarmy Tory MP before the programme went ahead with the Arab “nationalist”. Fantastic TV.

  2. This show is absolutely brilliant. I wish the BBC would make more dramas like this!

  3. I’m really enjoying the hour, it’s superbly acted and written and visually stunning. Ben Wishaw and Dominic West might have a little something to do with the appeal 😉 As for Mr. Hitchens, well he doesn’t ‘get’ society now does he? So I doubt he ‘got it in the 50s either.

  4. Does anyone know the name of the jazz song played in Episode Four (I think the singer may be Dinah Washington.

    • PAM:
      this week watched The Hour on Netflix here in Canada.
      Loved it and found this Sarah Cheverton write-up and
      responses. Only one year behind!

      if you don’t have your answer yet, yes artist was
      Dinah Washington, song Back Water Blues.

      Happy to see there is/will be a second series of
      The Hour.

  5. I love the character of Lix. We all know about the way women were allowed into the wider workforce during the war and that all kinds of odd things happened to force them back out afterwards, but this is a portrayal of a woman who had been a swashbuckling hero during the war, shown a few years later pushed to an extent back into the girls corner, but still dangerous and not completely reassimilated. I had thought about women driving tractors settling back into not being allowed to drive the family car but never thought about peope doing mind alteringly dangerous things like Lix and how they might be persuaded back into the kitchen, or how they would find a space for themselves on civvy street.

  6. Sally Jones says:

    I heard the trailers and reviews on Radio 4, and decided it was a ‘must see’ on catch up. I haven’t been disappointed. It’s got it all – brilliant dialogue and screenplay,great music,intertwining, intriguing storylines,fantastic acting, and really strong female characters. How the broadsheets could give it a lukewarm reception I just don’t understand. I will be bereft when it finishes next week, but at the same time can’t wait for the last episode – as it was with ‘The Killing’. Yes, absolutely, more BBC dramas of this quality please!

  7. I’m not sure as to why this show is being lambasted by the press in the UK. I’ve watched it and can only say good things about it. It is very well written, with as well rounded characters as you can do in 6 hours of television and most importantly, well portrayed. I believe this actors. I believe that their daily struggle for love and happiness and a fulfilling life is as important to them as it is to me. And the story they tell is as relevant today as it was 50+ years ago. And the questions they ask are just as important.

    Perhaps if the writer/producer had been other than a woman. Or if TV that is topical and somewhat informative wasn’t deemed as boring, this show wouldn’t be so badly viewed by the press. Then again, if we consider what tactics the press of today -the truth? what is that? does it sell? does it stink of scandal?-uses, we shouldn’t be surprised at all. And if some of this “critics” had a bit more than a rudimentary education and an understanding of historical events affecting our everyday lives even today, the results might be different.

    • I haven’t yet watched it, I will do though on the strength of the recommendations here. I wonder if the UK press are just conditioned now to make a ‘tl;dr’ response to anything that doesn’t have a laugh track and/or a recap every ten minutes?

  8. I have loved watching The Hour and am already feeling worried about what will manage to take its place when it finishes next week because the political and social questions that it raises are still relevant today. I wasn’t alive in the fifties and know that you can make the past more glamorous/exciting than it was (some people loved the sixties, others had a far more prosaic experience) but I do think showing women as gutsy and can-do and not entirely bound by society’s expectations (babies, marriage, keeping quiet) is a good thing whatever decade they’re living in. And the same goes for men like Freddie who aren’t born into a world of privilege and have to constantly prove their worth. Great writing, great acting, brilliant sets, wonderful costumes, I could go on. More please!

    • I think it’s worth contacting the BBC and praising this programme to them too. The more enthusiasm for it the more likely they are to film some more, hopefully, or something similar.

  9. This is BBC drama at its best – entertainment which is thought-provoking and great to look at. I don’t want it to end. ( I love the music too ).

  10. Just watched Episode 5 to catch up, so am prepared for the last one this Tuesday. It’s riveting drama, & I can only reiterate the complimentary comments in other posts above, & echo the praise given on all counts. Was it Dominic West who said he hoped The Hour might become more than just one 6-episode drama? Unfortunately I don’t see how the remarkable tension of the Suez/Hungary/Secret Service background in the current production could be maintained in any development of the BBC characters and with another storyline.
    As for the popular press, I don’t think they wish to be involved – The Hour isn’t light entertainment; it’s too much of an intellectual challenge, & too worrying in its searchlight into what actually happened during the Suez crisis.

  11. Just to say it is really entertaining and I really hope they do many follow ups.
    They can always skip a few years and do Cuba and the stand off with Kennedy/Khrushchev next?
    I like the way it captures the flavour of time as I grew up in West London during the fifty’s but the outdoor condenser air-con unit at Lime Grove [in the scene last week when they got in the Rover to leave the studio] was a bit ahead of it’s time – same as the seat belts in the car!
    None the less, finding whole suburban streets with wooden [not plastic] windows and hardly any cars parked at the kerbs is highly commendable but it is the overall plot and the quality that makes it work so well.

  12. Stephen Gilchrist says:

    What a brilliant finale! This has to be one of the finest dramas of the year. Beautifully written and acted and so pertinent to today. It packed a knock out punch. The BBC should be so proud of this wonderful piece of television.

  13. Denise Frisby says:

    Thank you BBC for a great drama. I’ve just watched the final episode on I player and have enjoyed every moment. Please can we have more quality drama.

    • Rebecca Fahrenholt says:

      Great drama and a clever deconstruction of some classic British taboos still alive and well today. Thank you Beeb.

  14. Have just watched the final episode on iplayer and was not disappointed. The storyline was both compelling and complex and, unlike a lot of current drama, did not feel the need to explain itself repeatedly. I like a story written with an intelligent audience in mind – and by intelligent, I mean if you don’t remember the world events of the 50’s (my hand is raised) then feel free to surf the net for something other than celeb gossip and find out for yourself. I loved the sets and costumes, the acting was superb and if the BBC would like the opinion of a mere mortal rather than that expressed by the deity known as the daily mail, they should make more!

  15. Just finished watching episode 6 on iplayer. Best thing on TV for ages, lets hope there’s a spin off if not another series.

  16. A Buchan says:

    Great drama, I loved it!
    My only regret was that it did not run for longer. I was 13 in 1956 and it brought back so many memories. The women’s costumes were just perfect. I remember those calf-length tight skirts being very controversial at the time.
    1956 was a time that women were glamorous and women who wore trousers were thought to be a bit odd.

    ‘The Hour’ was a refreshing change from all the drivel that is on TV these days, I do hope that they are going to make another one, can’t wait for the DVD to come out.

  17. Couldn’t agree more with all of the above comments, wonderful review of a truly brilliant BBC period drama. More please.

  18. I’m just wondering what the next series will be about. And those two better get it on on the next one, or else.

  19. Deborah says:

    Another fan of The Hour here. While I found certain elements of the finale a little predictable, overall I loved the series and thought it beautifully and subtly acted. The characters were so well-drawn and nuanced and the dialogue so well written. It would be a horrible shame if we never saw any more of them. There’s still so much there to explore.

    But even if we don’t, I’ll always love the series, and anachronisms or no, I think it captured the exhausted, post-war atmosphere beautifully.

  20. Enjoyed reading the posts following the last instalment; & it’s always reassuring when it’s not just me thinking some drama was brilliant. I agree with Deborah about loving the series, “and anachronisms or no, I think it captured the exhausted, post-war atmosphere beautifully.” It really did do that so well. From what I remember of the 50s, I look back on that period as being depressing & restricting. Even as a young person I was very aware of a sense of general exhaustion among my family. my home town & indeed the nation. For parents at that time they’d had to cope with the 30s Depression, WW2 (we only just made it!), followed by severe austerity, & in the 50s there was still rationing, & we had the Korean War, Suez …… No wonder we all went mad in the 60s!

    Is anyone passing our general praise on to the BBC? They should hear & take note. And yes what a joy to have some ‘intelligent’ drama to watch!

  21. This is television drama at its best – the attention to detail in the settings and costumes, and the excellent performances all round. I agree with earlier postings – and trust that these messages are monitored by the Beeb.

  22. A Buchan says:

    The attention to detail in the costumes was amazing. I can remember in 1957 when I was at school there was a craze amongst young women for tapering their straight skirts to make them a tighter fit at the hemline. I was surprised to see some of the extras wearing skirts like that!
    Someone was done some very detailed research for this drama.

  23. A truly brilliant and well thought out programme. Had depth and meaning along with wonderfully woven issues in each episode. Havent seen a decent programme like this in years. Wish it didnt end quite so soon!

  24. Sally Jones says:

    I really think the Beeb should be aware of all these rave reviews, to ensure we get more dramas of this quality. Costume drama at its best! Could one of you other fans, who are more technologically minded than me, make sure this link gets sent to the appropriate people? They need to know. And Harry I agree, the Cuba stand off would make for really great drama if made with the same high production values.

  25. completely agree with your piece – this is an extraordinary show – just watching it now in Manhattan, at last.

    here’s our take: http://teamgloria.com/2012/10/21/interweb-visiting-fran-lebowitz-late-night-british-drama-and-two-fragments-from-e-e-cummings/

  26. Love this show…really agree with the review. Have an even bigger crush on Freddie than ‘the size of Greater London’…might have something to do with it. ;)Seriously though, it is miles ahead of shows like Mad Men and even the irritation Bel Rowley inspires in me cannot alter that.

  27. I’m delighted that ‘The Hour’ returneth and hope that it will be as good as the first series.

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