like there was a chance I wouldn't love this
So, needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed The Hour (linking you to imdb so you can see the cast list), the six-part BBC series on this summer about producing a news hour during the Suez Crisis in 1956. No surprise: set something in England with any date between 1945 and 1960 in front of it, and I’m there. Plus, it had a fabulous cast, gorgeous clothes, lovely production design, and a reasonably engaging plot.
People compare it to Mad Men and you can see why-vaguely the same era, same costumes. But it’s more like a cross between Broadcast News and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (though I think they should have studied their Le Carre novels a bit harder, tbh--that plot gets a little silly). The 50s in America were all about prosperity and the smug glories of nascent world domination, while in Britain they were about the opposite, really: deprivation and the queasy roil of an empire fading away. And while Mad Men (in the seasons I’ve watched, anyway) is pulled along by the fleshy slow burn of Don Draper/ Jon Hamm’s desperation, The Hour is powered by the electricity of Freddie Lyon/Ben Whishaw’s energy and conviction (it took me about an episode to realize he was the guy who was such an extraordinary Keats in Jane Campion's Bright Star--he's just as good in this).
The show also runs on a healthy dose of UST and pining, though imo the central triangle of Freddie/Bel/Hector only makes sense if you imagine Freddie is gay (his awesome on-screen hook-up with Lix notwithstanding). In my head, it goes like this: he and Bel are soul mates, love each other more than anything, but have realized, after a couple of spectacularly unsuccessful attempts, that they can’t have a sexual relationship. They could marry anyway, spend their lives together, as plenty of straight women and gay men did (and do), but she knows that she enjoys sex too much to spend her life like that. He knows that about her too. Hence, her affairs and his pining.
Anyway, that’s my take on it-and I think that characterization bled a little into my fic. Because otherwise it doesn’t make sense that they wouldn’t at least have an affair (though I suppose you could also imagine that she’s genuinely not sexually attracted to him). She tells Hector he needs a wife, but it doesn’t seem that Freddie would need a wife in the same way, or that he’d be capable of keeping Bel from something she wanted to do.
Anyway, I have other quibbles, but they are kind of beside the point of the pleasures of the show. Have some pictures instead.
Here’s Dominic West as Hector Madden and Ben Whishaw as Freddie Lyon (wearing a tux borrowed from Hector. No. Really.
Here's Freddie with Romola Garai as Bel Cowley
And a vid:
I absolutely recommend it, if it sounds like your cup of tea.
People compare it to Mad Men and you can see why-vaguely the same era, same costumes. But it’s more like a cross between Broadcast News and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (though I think they should have studied their Le Carre novels a bit harder, tbh--that plot gets a little silly). The 50s in America were all about prosperity and the smug glories of nascent world domination, while in Britain they were about the opposite, really: deprivation and the queasy roil of an empire fading away. And while Mad Men (in the seasons I’ve watched, anyway) is pulled along by the fleshy slow burn of Don Draper/ Jon Hamm’s desperation, The Hour is powered by the electricity of Freddie Lyon/Ben Whishaw’s energy and conviction (it took me about an episode to realize he was the guy who was such an extraordinary Keats in Jane Campion's Bright Star--he's just as good in this).
The show also runs on a healthy dose of UST and pining, though imo the central triangle of Freddie/Bel/Hector only makes sense if you imagine Freddie is gay (his awesome on-screen hook-up with Lix notwithstanding). In my head, it goes like this: he and Bel are soul mates, love each other more than anything, but have realized, after a couple of spectacularly unsuccessful attempts, that they can’t have a sexual relationship. They could marry anyway, spend their lives together, as plenty of straight women and gay men did (and do), but she knows that she enjoys sex too much to spend her life like that. He knows that about her too. Hence, her affairs and his pining.
Anyway, that’s my take on it-and I think that characterization bled a little into my fic. Because otherwise it doesn’t make sense that they wouldn’t at least have an affair (though I suppose you could also imagine that she’s genuinely not sexually attracted to him). She tells Hector he needs a wife, but it doesn’t seem that Freddie would need a wife in the same way, or that he’d be capable of keeping Bel from something she wanted to do.
Anyway, I have other quibbles, but they are kind of beside the point of the pleasures of the show. Have some pictures instead.
Here’s Dominic West as Hector Madden and Ben Whishaw as Freddie Lyon (wearing a tux borrowed from Hector. No. Really.
Here's Freddie with Romola Garai as Bel Cowley
And a vid:
Click to viewI absolutely recommend it, if it sounds like your cup of tea.