“Sixty minutes you won’t regret!”

Even if you don’t watch the news, you’ll have heard the names of the biggest news corporations thrown about in passing. You’ll vaguely recognize the faces of their anchors on pub televisions or as you flick through the channels on a lazy evening. News channels and shows are built into the daily rituals of our lives and we all too easily take the work that these people do for granted, never thinking about what goes on behind the scenes. BBC’s series The Hour is a thrilling look at the world through the eyes of the people who report it, but what sets it radically apart from HBO’s series The Newsroom is the fact that it is set in the 1950s.

It’s June, 1956. The BBC has green lighted a new weekly news programme eponymously titled ‘The Hour’ and Bel Rowley (Romola Garai) has been chosen as producer, to the disgruntlement of the male dominated industry. Meanwhile her colleague and best friend, self-destructively ambitious Freddie Lyon (Ben Whishaw) is passed over as anchor for newbie Hector Madden (Dominic West), a charming man with ‘a face for entertainment’. ‘The Hour’ seems doomed to fail before it can really find its feet; Bel’s precarious position as a woman in a competitive industry puts incredible pressure on the show and her, British government officials all but censor certain stories to protect their interests and Hector doesn’t turn out to be quite as shiny on screen as he is in person. Couple that with Bel and Hector’s undeniable attraction to one another and his bubbly wife Marnie’s (Oona Chaplin) suspicions, and it becomes quite clear that ‘The Hour’’s staff has an arduous task ahead of them.

Meanwhile, Freddie is approached by an old flame to look into the death of her professor, an old flame who turns up dead mere days afterwards in a staged suicide. Fuelled by guilt and fury, he throws himself into the investigation without realizing that he is netting not only himself but his colleagues in a web of government conspiracies, putting everyone at risk the longer he researches. And Freddie Lyon is nothing if not stubborn.

As the Suez Crisis begins to heat up and stories begin trickling into the office, the staff of ‘The Hour’ grit their teeth and throw themselves into their work. In spite of their fears and doubts, they set themselves up as a news agency that Britain needs; one that shares news that the public deserves, even if it doesn’t always fit into the government’s narrative of peace or British sensibilities.

The Hour is a show that builds momentum as it goes along and is slow to start- its lead characters are initially too cold to relate to and the world that viewers are thrust into needs time for adjustment. Once you get past the first couple of episodes of the first series however, it’s impossible to leave Bel Rowley’s newsroom behind. The characters’ complex natures and tension-ridden relationships with both their work and one another are what undoubtedly drive the show forwards – the spectacular cast and writers make it very difficult to not fall in and out of love with the characters as their arcs progress. While you may not always agree with the choices that they make, you always respect characters’ reckless dedication to their jobs and find yourself hanging onto the edge of your seat as they work themselves into more and more dangerous situations.

It’s impossible to talk about The Hour without mentioning its production designers’ detailed recreation of 1950s England. Bel Rowley’s tailored power suits are punches of colour in the work place that reinforce her difficult position as a woman in power. Unlike Marnie, whose flowery flowing skirts conform her to the image of a happy housewife, Bel’s clothing speak of a need to assert her confidence and control over herself and her colleagues. The initial reveal of the actual set of ‘The Hour’ is an incredible moment where it’s impossible not to be amazed by genuine 1950s BBC cameras swinging around as booms are adjusted, or to not be dazzled by the light bulbs that border Hector’s beaming cut out face. The world is a strange one but one that you never question the integrity of for even a second.

If you are a fan of intelligent, witty drama, then The Hour is the show for you. The delicate handling of themes of power, trust and censorship and subtlety of charactersation marks Abi Morgan and her team as one of the best and most consistent television writers to date. Its mystery plots border on just the right side of absurd and engaging treatment of history force you to view Britain and the press with fresh eyes, topical in light of the Murdoch scandal and growing distrust of the media. While the show has just been recently axed for a third season because of a low viewership, its numerous awards, nominations and legions of devastated fans should be a testament to its brilliance. Sit down for an hour with The Hour, it’ll be sixty minutes you won’t regret.