Its 1956 and tensions are running high behind the scenes of new cutting edge topical news programme, The Hour. Young female producer Bel Rowley (Garai) faces a mass of pressures from all sides. The shows presenter, dashing, upper class Hector Madden (West) may be charming and suave behind the scenes but is stilted and awkward on screen. He also happens to be in almost perpetual conflict with Bels lower upper middle class best friend Freddie Lyon (Whishaw), an angry young man as passionate about the news as he clearly is (secretly) for Bel.
Yet with Bel clearly drawn to the smoother (and married) Hector and the show facing serious governmental pressure with the outbreak of the Suez Crisis, a series of deaths soon suggest some sort of sinister conspiracy is going on.
Ignoring the thriller aspect entirely, not everything in The Hour is convincing. Some of the dialogue sounds a bit 21st century. Did people say note to self and going for a Chinese in 1956? No. Indeed, writer Abi Morgan has actually admitted this.
Another thing: Romola Garais character is apparently loosely based on a real life female producer from the period. But the real woman producer was reportedly well into her 40s: although she is actually brilliant in the role, its difficult to believe a woman in her 20s, as Garai is, would have been in such a senior position in those pre-feminist times.
But otherwise this is difficult to fault. Although clearly an attempt to do for the 1950s BBC what Mad Men has done for the Madison Avenue of the 60s, The Hour cleverly manages to something look nostalgic and stylish and authentically drab at the same time. The footage of the show within the show manages to look cutting edge while still suitably deferent for the period. The three leads and a strong supporting cast, which includes Tim Pigott-Smith and Juliet Stevenson, are all excellent. The Wires Dominic West is particularly good, only occasionally verging on Chris Morris-style parody when playing the role of interviewer in the show. Green Wings Julian Rhind-Tutt is also good value as a prime ministerial spokesman.
True, the TV news show love triangle set up is to the 1980s film Broadcast News. But with an added conspiracy theory element to spice things up, this is well worth an hour of anyones time. Or indeed six hours.
Overall Verdict: Not perfect but still one of the best British TV dramas of 2011. Roll on Series 2!
Reviewer: Chris Hallam