The beginnings of English TV investigative journalism, thriller style and “Mad Men” flavor, in a fiction larger than life. A captivating series, to be rewatched in full on Arte.tv.
Romola Garai, Dominic West and Ben Whishaw. Kudos Films
Published on September 27, 2024 at 6:21 p.m.
Daired in 2011 and 2012, the two seasons of the exciting British series The Hour skillfully mix political thriller and historical drama, to bring us back to life with the birth of investigative television journalism on the BBC. Around the trio formed by Bel Rowley, a young producer, her best friend, Freddie Lyon, intrepid journalist, and Hector Madden, the star presenter, a whole team was mobilized for the launch, in 1956, of The Hour ( “L’Heure”), the first news magazine, a sort of Five Columns on the English front page. Over the course of two seasons of six episodes of Hitchcockian suspense, the series established itself as a distant cousin of Mad Men, and a new dazzling demonstration of British know-how.
The birth of independent journalism
“If we cannot debate what concerns our society… then we cannot claim the name of democracy. » Facing the camera, Freddie (Ben Whishaw, who has since become James Bond’s Q) shouts his quest for truth. The series created by Abi Morgan (River, The Split) dares to tell a fictionalized account of the birth of counter-power journalism on television, ready to face anything to bear witness, as the Suez Canal crisis begins. A daily battle within public television where the government censor seems at home.
A political-historical thriller
The Hour, an investigative magazine which is also reminiscent of the American 60 Minutes, with a very similar title, does not only seek to give voice to the opposition of conservative Prime Minister Anthony Eden. The rebellious Freddie, supported by his producer (Romola Garai, discovered in Angel, by François Ozon) more than by his presenter (Dominic West, The Wire and The Affair), digs into the heart of a dark and captivating affair of assassinations and of espionage, the ramifications of which are gradually revealed. In the middle of the Cold War, at the very moment when England, France and Israel attack an Egypt supported by the USSR, all the stakes are increased tenfold.
The telegenic 1950s and 1960s
Under the influence of Mad Men, The Hour takes care of the aesthetics of its look at the 1950s and 1960s. We smoke there, we drink there, we sleep there, we drive there fast and without seat belts. Bel Rowley, inspired by a BBC pioneer, fights to find her place in a man’s world, like Peggy in Matthew Weiner’s series. Hector Madden embodies conservatism with a strict style, Freddie Lyon, wild locks and loose tie, the beginnings of an ideological revolution. Despite three Golden Globe nominations and one Emmy Award nomination, the series was canceled at the end of its second season.
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