Netflix fans who loved recent release Black Doves have been told to watch a series that has been described as ‘The Crown meets Mad Men’ and it can be binged for free.
Originally broadcast from 2011 until 2012 on BBC Two, The Hour is being recommended to those who enjoyed the latest spy thriller series. The British made show a fictional current-affairs show being launched by the BBC in June 1956, at the time of the Hungarian Revolution and Suez Crisis.
It even shared a cast member of Black Doves in Ben Whishaw. He is joined in the cast by The Crown’s Dominic West, Mission Impossible’s Vanessa Kirby and former Doctor Who Peter Capaldi to name a few. The Hour was created and written by Abi Morgan who would go on to create popular BBC series The Split. The show was cancelled by BBC in 2013 but fans who are rediscovering the show will be interested to know that Morgan has previously spoken about how she would be interested in a revival. The writer even revealed they had an idea for a third series set in 1960s London.
Viewers have more than one option if they wish to catch up on the series. All episodes are available to watch to those with a subscription to Netflix or Amazon Prime. However, there is also an option to binge the entire thing for free. This is because the complete series of The Hour is available on U. This is the platform that was formerly known as UKTV and broadcasts channels such as U&Dave and U&Yesterday.
When the series was first broadcast on television it quickly earned comparisons to hit US series Mad Men, due to the setting and focus on people working in media, wearing sharp clothes and drinking. A feature by Collider even suggested that it was more in line with The Crown, despite airing a few years before the Netflix drama about the Royal family. Their reasoning was that The Hour shares similar storylines featuring bureaucracy and espionage, meaning it is also perfect for fans of Black Doves.
Fans rediscovering the show on streaming platforms can’t believe that the series was ever cancelled, with one posting online: “Just watching this on Netflix. I totally fail to understand how the BBC axed this well acted, beautifully written and intelligent drama with such an incredible cast.”
Another agreed: “What a fantastic show. I just found this recently, and after completing both seasons, I am scratching my head wondering, how the hell did this ever get cancelled. The acting is Top Tier. I feel like I want to single out people, but the whole cast is sublime, from the always wonderful Ben Wishaw to a stand out performance from Oona Chaplin, in what some would consider, not a major role, but she killed it, in every scene she was in. I highly, highly recommend this compelling drama.”
A third added: “I used to think this show was the best drama series the BBC had ever done, and was devastated when it ended prematurely, the BBC having pulled it. Now that I can watch it again on Netflix, I am again transfixed and watching it every night instead of the news. It made such a mark on me the first time that, over the intervening years, I thought of it often as, still, the best thing I have seen on TV. The acting from Romona Garai, Dominic West and Ben Wishaw is worthy of BAFTAs. The cinematography is beautiful and the storyline, always ambitious and complex, is even more relevant today. So much so that it is still crying out for a third season. Meanwhile it gets harder to find anything worth watching. Thank goodness for Netflix.”
The Hour is streaming on Netflix, Amazon Prime and U.
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