Cultural vandalism.Anachronisms,anomalies and downright lies...
After a series of sub - sub Saul Bass titles,"The Hour" gets under way with a typically cavalier attitude towards temporal and cultural veracity that characterises the BBC which increasingly appears to be making programmes aimed exclusively at the chattering classes gathering round their plasma tellies safely tucked away within the M25 corridor. Set in 1956,"The Hour" presents the Corporation as it wishes us to see it - a beacon of sensitive liberal intellectualism regarding its audience with benevolent paternalism. Certainly in 2011 the BBC is an absolute model of politically correct thought,gently pushing us peasants to acccept its World View if only because it is forced down our throats every night. But it is mistake of gargantuan proportions on their part to assume that an ever - growing ageing population who actually remember what life was like in 1956 is going to accept a portrait of the age awash with anachronisms,anomalies and downright lies. Imagine going to the theatre to watch "Richard The Third".The curtain goes up and the BBC's actor of the moment - Mr Jack Barrowman -say,shows his gleaming white teeth and starts up.."Hi Guys!Now is the Winter of our non - sustainable goodwill made,like, Festival Season by the iconic solar body from the home of our friends in the north,innit?" Without - obviously - comparing "The Hour" with Shakespeare,the level of dislocation from its time frame is at that level. The actors all look exactly what they are,21st century people bundled into clothes meant for mid twentieth century people who looked,walked and talked totally differently. Life was tougher then.There was National Service,corporal and capital punishment.Food was not plentiful and it wasn't "healthy".The second world war was only 11 years before.Suez was looming,the Hungarian Revolution which tolled the death - knell for the Britich Communist Party.My father still had his demob suit. The cast looked as though their idea of hardship was getting a poor table at "The Ivy". As it presents London as it wishes it was in "Eastenders",The BBC is presenting recent history as it wishes it had been.Hitler and Stalin would wholeheartedly approve.score /10
ianlouisiana 25 July 2011
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2463930/14530
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