The Hour comes across a little as if it doesn’t know what it wants to be. On the one hand, it’s a bit of an in joke at the expense of the BBC. Look how hard it is to get things done around here! The government is telling us what we can and can’t broadcast!
On the other hand, it’s a whodunnit, or a whydidtheydoit even, with the main character Freddie (Ben Whishaw) trying to figure out why an old friend of his was killed (or did she kill herself?).
The balance is nicely struck though, even if McNulty Dominic West doesn’t seem to quite fit into the role of Hector Madden. There’s a fine line between acting like you’re hamming it up, and actually hamming it up. The other actors seem particularly well cast though, and there are a string of fine cameos from Andrew Strong (who you might recall as Moriarty from the recent BBC adaptation of Sherlock Holmes), Juliet Stevenson, and Tim Pigott-Smith.
Check it out on the BBC iPlayer if you’ve missed it.