--- title: "The Hour" year: 2011 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/the-hour" fi1m_score: 70 critics_score: 71 critics_reviews: 7 published: "2026-09-17T02:10:17.251474+00:00" updated: "2026-09-17T02:10:18.326195+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Hour (2011) Created by Abi Morgan · 1h 00m · MPA TV-14 · Drama, War & Politics, Crime **Fi1m score: 70** · Critics 71 from 7 reviews *In a sentence:* Everybody smokes, everybody speechifies, and the spies are the least interesting people in the building > Abi Morgan’s 1950s BBC newsroom is well dressed, well acted and about half the drama it wants to be. Ben Whishaw and Romola Garai carry it; the spy plot they keep tripping over does not deserve them. ## Synopsis London, 1956. Freddie Lyon (Ben Whishaw), a BBC reporter kept on newsreel stories about debutantes, wants to cover the things that matter, and with the Suez crisis breaking there is no shortage. His oldest friend Bel Rowley (Romola Garai) is made producer of a new weekly current affairs programme, The Hour, and hires as its face not Freddie but Hector Madden (Dominic West), handsome and untested. Freddie takes a reporter’s job on the programme and resents it. On the foreign desk Lix Storm (Anna Chancellor) watches all three. Then an old friend of Freddie’s tells him a recent death was not what it looked like, and a quiet man called Thomas Kish (Burn Gorman) begins turning up where he should not be. ## Review Abi Morgan’s series arrives in the BBC of 1956, in the weeks when Britain is about to go to war over the Suez Canal, and hands three people a new weekly current affairs programme called The Hour. Freddie Lyon (Ben Whishaw) is the reporter who thinks he should be running it. Bel Rowley (Romola Garai), his closest friend, is the producer who actually is. Hector Madden (Dominic West) is the presenter who has been given the chair for his jaw and his connections. Around them Morgan wraps a newsroom drama, a love triangle and a spy thriller, and she is good at two of the three. Whishaw is the reason to start. His Freddie talks too fast, ties his tie badly and cannot pass a superior without correcting him, and Whishaw plays the arrogance as hunger rather than pose, so that we forgave him about a second before the people on screen did. West plays Hector as a man who knows exactly how he looks in a suit and is beginning to suspect it is all he has. Garai has the harder job and does it beautifully: a woman running a room of men who each assume she is there to take the minutes, and who has learned to win by letting them think so for a while. Her scenes with Whishaw have the ease of two people who have been finishing each other’s sentences since school. The bench behind them is deep. Anna Chancellor’s Lix Storm runs the foreign desk with a whisky and a cigarette and gets the best line in most episodes. Anton Lesser, as the head of news Clarence Fendley, does more with a raised eyebrow than the script manages with a page. Julian Rhind-Tutt’s Angus McCain, the government’s man, drifts in and out of the building in a good coat, all smiles and small threats, and the newsroom feels colder each time he leaves it. Oona Castilla Chaplin, as Hector’s wife Marnie, is given a hostess’s smile and a great deal to hide behind it. It is handsomely done. The newsroom is typewriters, telephones and cigarette haze; the studio floor is a cramped, hot room with cameras the size of wardrobes and a red light everyone watches. The live broadcasts are the best sequences in the run. There is a countdown, a running order that has just fallen apart, a presenter reading a script he has not seen, and we found ourselves sitting forward, tense, over a programme we knew perfectly well would go out on time. That happens every time the series goes back to the studio, and it is the strongest argument for staying with it. Morgan has a habit of handing Freddie speeches about the duty of journalism that sound written in 2011 and read aloud in 1956; he is not wrong, he is just not talking like anyone else in the building. And then there are the spies. A death that may not be an accident, a coded message, a frightened girl, a quiet man called Thomas Kish (Burn Gorman) who appears in corridors: it is all competently laid out and none of it grips. The thread keeps pulling the camera away from the newsroom and into a dim room where somebody says something cryptic, and by the fourth episode we were bored with it, and then irritated, because the newsroom it kept leaving was so plainly alive. The second run, first shown in November 2012, is the better one. Peter Capaldi arrives as Randall Brown, a new head of news with a tidy desk and a way of standing too close, and the series seems to relax once it has him, spending more time on the programme and less on the shadows. It ends after twelve episodes, six a series. Set against [*Broadcast News*](https://film.one/film/broadcast-news) or [*Mad Men*](https://film.one/tv/mad-men), which it is clearly thinking about, it is smaller and more earnest and does not have their nerve. Set against most British period television it is quick, well cast and unafraid of politics. Watch it for Whishaw and Garai, who are worth an evening on their own; give the spies three episodes to make their case and then stop waiting for them. Each episode runs an hour and carries a 15. *Fi1m score 70, published 17 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics like The Hour, and the praise gathers in the same places. The 1950s BBC newsroom setting is admired almost everywhere, both for its period detail and for the premise it gives the writers. The performances are the other constant, with Ben Whishaw and Romola Garai singled out most often, Dominic West close behind, and Julian Rhind-Tutt noted among the supporting cast. Several reviews find the dialogue smart and the mix of newsroom drama and conspiracy thriller engaging enough to hook them. The reservations are about pace and script. Critics describe the opening as slow and deliberate, holding plot back longer than it needs to, and more than one finds the writing uneven and the spy material predictable. The spread is narrow: nobody is negative, and the American reviews run warmer than the British ones. The Guardian is the most guarded, calling the first episode a mix of parts that does not yet feel fully formed or gripping. ### Reviews we read (7) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Tim Goodman (85/100, inferred): The series is an absorbing showcase for British period drama strengths, with a compelling spy saga and nuanced personal relationships among the journalists. The critic singles out the smart dialogue, exceptional performances (especially Whishaw and Garai), and attractive 1950s design. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-reviews/hour-tv-review-224413/) - **The AV Club**, Emily St. James (B+): The pilot excels in its central character dynamics and sharp 1950s London aesthetic, evoking Broadcast News and Mad Men while standing on its own. It offers promise through strong performances and visual style despite some predictable spy elements and clunky moments. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/the-hour-pilot-1798169294) - **Variety**, Brian Lowry (75/100, inferred): An engrossing if slow-grinding mystery/soap that proves addictive, with smart writing, terrific looks and strong casting in its 1950s TV newsroom setting. The deliberate pace allows relationship development but leaves the audience in the dark on plot points for too long. [Read](https://variety.com/2011/tv/reviews/the-hour-1117945808/) - **The Times**, Andrew Billen (70/100, inferred): The drama is the tale of three newsroom idiots with a clunky script, but the strong premise of a 1950s BBC current affairs show outweighs the uncertain execution and adolescent elements. The period detail enchants and the supporting cast is strong. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-radio/article/last-nights-tv-the-hour-fjz2s9qcbcn) - **The Guardian** (50/100, inferred): The series is a hotchpotch of newsroom drama, conspiracy thriller and period detail that doesn't yet feel fully formed or gripping after the first episode. It has intrigue and strong supporting performances, particularly Julian Rhind-Tutt, to whet the appetite despite a slow start. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2011/jul/19/tv-review-the-hour) - **Den of Geek**, Ryan Lambie (70/100, inferred): The series opener delivers solid period detail and engaging lead performances from Ben Whishaw, Romola Garai and Dominic West in a mix of newsroom drama and conspiracy thriller. The script is uneven with some obvious dialogue, but it provides enough intrigue in its love triangle and mystery to hook viewers. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/the-hour-episode-1-review/) - **Digital Spy**, Alex Fletcher (65/100, inferred): The premiere is not a Mad Men equivalent but succeeds as a newsroom drama blending conspiracy and murder mystery elements with strong character work, especially Romola Garai's Bel and her chemistry with Dominic West's Hector. Freddie's petulant arc and the loose plot connections provide intrigue for future episodes despite some familiar tropes. [Read](https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/a330643/the-hour-why-its-not-the-uks-answer-to-mad-men/) ## Details - **Created by:** Abi Morgan - **Creator:** Abi Morgan - **Director:** Catherine Morshead, Jamie Payne - **Writer:** Abi Morgan - **Producer:** Ruth Kenley-Letts, Noelle Morris - **Cast:** Ben Whishaw as Freddie Lyon; Romola Garai as Bel Rowley; Dominic West as Hector Madden; Anna Chancellor as Lix Storm; Tim Pigott-Smith as Lord Elms; John Bowe as Douglas Owen; Anton Lesser as Clarence Fendley; Juliet Stevenson as Lady Elms - **Runtime:** 1h 00m - **Certificate (MPA):** TV-14 - **Release (the US):** 19 July 2011 - **Genres:** Drama, War & Politics, Crime - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_nyCY1s2CA ## Where to watch in the US - The Roku Channel: free, hd - Tubi: free, hd - Amazon Prime Video: add-on - The Roku Channel: add-on, hd - Apple TV: buy, sd - Amazon Prime Video: buy, hd *Checked 2026-09-17.* Also available in: AU, BE, CA, CH, ES, FR, GB, IE, NZ, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Broadcast News* (1987), Fi1m 84: The newsroom triangle done with sharper jokes and a producer who cries on schedule. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/broadcast-news.md) - *Mad Men* (2007): The office drama this one keeps glancing at, with more patience and better suits. - *Good Night, and Good Luck* (2005), Fi1m 83: Television news versus the state in the same decade, shot in smoky black and white. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/good-night-and-good-luck.md) - *Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy* (1979): The British establishment spy story done slowly, quietly and properly, with Alec Guinness. - *Deutschland 83* (2015): Cold War espionage with a lighter touch and a soundtrack the period actually earned. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/the-hour