The Opinionated Knitter

Last Night's TV - The Hour, BBC2; Britain Through a Lens: the Documentary Film ...

So, here comes The Hour , bent almost double beneath the weight of expectation and specious comparisons to Mad Men. What the latter appears to mean is: (1) They smoke a lot; (2) They wear vintage clothes; (3) There's a good-looking lead who wears a tie. But forget Mad Men because The Hour is its own thing and – on the evidence available so far – a very promising thing too. Abi Morgan's drama about the coming of age of British television journalism has been lucky in its timing, arriving on screen at a moment when the relationship between politicians, the press and the police seems like the only thing worth talking about. But the first episode suggests that it has earned any luck it gets.

The year is 1956, with the Suez Crisis boiling up nicely in the background but getting very little coverage on television news, a bland and reassuring affair modelled on cinema newsreels and easily distracted by society weddings and debutante balls. "Four o'clock. No Eden. No Cairo!" snaps George, the editor, making it clear that his bulletin has no room for international crisis. The person he's snapping at is Freddie Lyon, a self-opinionated Young Turk who is desperate to shake things up. "We are calcifying in television news!" he howls at one point. "We are the nightly reassurance that all is right with the world."

Fortunately for Freddie there is a prospect of a way out – a new current-affairs programme called "The Hour". Unfortunately for Freddie, his friend Bel Rowley has been given the job of producing it, and although she's keen for Freddie to join her on the new team she fears his lack of diplomacy may prevent it. Freddie only has to see a senior BBC executive to explode in a terrifying spume of idealism, ranting wildly about "the mechanics of how we bear witness". He's not even diplomatic with Bel, openly scorning the notion that a woman could be up to the job.

Bel (modelled on the pioneering television journalist Grace Wyndham Goldie) gets this kind of thing a lot. "Such maternal instincts," murmurs Eden's press attaché condescendingly when she makes an inquiry about the prime minister's rumoured ill-health. "I do think you're wasted in news." And the gorgeous Hector Madden (Dominic West at his most lounge-lizardly) clearly believes that his role as the on-screen face of the new programme entitles him to have a crack at an after-hours debriefing of the producer. But, played by Romola Garai as a woman with a core of steely self-regard, Bel looks up to the challenge.

The Opinionated Knitter « NothingButKnit

6 Responses to “The Opinionated Knitter”

I just made a note of this book, sounds like I must have. I see character in that woman’s face, such wisdom. Thanks so much for the visit, the comment, and for joining in with this post. I appreciate your efforts. I’ll be searching this book out for my next trip (which is when I read and soak up a wee bit of sun).

The Opinionated Knitter

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