Bel's proving something of a disappointment but when the drama turns to the Suez crisis the show finds real pace and attitude
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read any further if you haven't watched the second episode of The Hour.
Cometh The Hour
We begin the second episode with the show already on the air. As Hector sits behind a heavy grey desk, delivering his lines with all the flair of Samantha Fox hosting the Brits, it appears that the launch of The Hour is going about as well as the birth of Daybreak. Freddie and Hector are bickering while Bel tries to be authoritative. She doesn't pull it off. She does, however, manage to get drunk with the gang afterwards, before having a cry with Freddie. I'm all for showing her human side, but I'd like a little more of the toughness first, which isn't really coming through at the moment.
In further Bel drama, her mother ? a cross between Marilyn Monroe and Ab Fab's Edina Monsoon ? comes to stay, but then doesn't, as she decides to go out with her man friend instead. This gives them the chance to have a chat about burgeoning sexual liberation, and about career versus relationships, but it feels both heavy-handed and incomplete. Still, there's always the matter of dashing-but-married Hector Madden to deal with. He and Bel flirt, they hold hands, they look into each other's souls, they share an umbrella. There is more tension here than in the Freddie-Bel setup, which seems to be more of a sibling affection than a romance, at least.
However, she finally gets to show her mettle in a clash with slimy Julian Rhind-Tutt's government adviser, who attempts to advise her to drop an interview with a Nasser sympathiser. She doesn't, but for some reason I didn't quite get, she's forced to drop Freddie's interview with Lord Elms so she can run with the Egypt scoop. Freddie helps Hector out by lending him books and prepping him for the interview, even though he doesn't like him, but it's all for the love of Bel. The interview goes swimmingly. Probably because the desk has gone.
The hat men and the debutante
The Hat Man has a name, and that name is Thomas Kish. He's been sent to The Hour from the World Service to interpret the Arabic dispatches coming from Egypt. The Suez crisis is easily the strongest part of the show, partly because it starts to feel like it's got a bit of pace and attitude, and partly because it means the excellent Anna Chancellor as Lix gets to stand around being as authoritative as Bel needs to be. "Is anyone actually listening to me?" she asks, at one point. They really should start.
Freddie, meanwhile, is busy investigating the mysterious Rizla, which, it turns out, is not covered in braille after all, but dots, which are a way of interpreting messages hidden in the Evening Standard crossword by last week's murdered lecturer. Rather than solving the final crossword immediately, thus hastening his enquiries into the death of his close friend Ruth Elms, he takes it at a leisurely pace, and after much faffing, he finally reveals the cryptic message: "he knows". He writes it on his hand, in case he forgets. Then somebody bikes him a film cannister labelled "Ruthie's holiday". It's footage of her, the lecturer and the hat-wearing Gish. He is wearing a less dark hat, so perhaps this is before his murderous tendencies fully emerged.
Notes and observations
? It's fairly easy to guess what will happen in a scene depending on the music playing when it starts. There's Pink Panther music for a mischievous exchange, and a saucy sax/sneaky cymbal when it gets spy-ish and mysterious.
? Hector has a hat on at the beginning, when the rest of the gang are drinking whisky and mocking him. Obviously it's the 1950s and hats are commonplace, and it's probably residual Shadow Line paranoia, but it made me wonder if he's actually connected to the sinister stuff. He does have a lot of friends in high places.
? Can any language enthusiasts shed light on whether the phrases "does it just seem as if you have a pickle up your backside" or "a little edgy" were in common use at this point in time? Both seem fairly modern to me.
? I'm a little disappointed with Bel so far. She's been given the relationship drama, and the family drama, and is seriously lacking the authority you imagine a producer, and a female producer at that, would need. There's some balance in the character of Lix, but it almost seems as if the two characters should have been reversed: Bel on the foreign desk, Lix taking charge and sorting everyone out.
? Speaking of Lix, I enjoyed her line, "Whisky is god's way of telling us he loves us and wants us to be happy."
? Finally, if you haven't already seen it, here's a letter from Lynne Reid Banks on the authenticity of The Hour. I think it's important to take it as a drama rather than a documentary, but a fascinating perspective nonetheless.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2011/jul/26/the-hour-season-one-episode-two
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