The Hour (Seasons 1–2)

The Hour (2011) is a BBC newsroom drama you can watch online on iFILM. London, the mid-1950s, the Cold War running hot underneath the surface. A team launches a bold new evening current-affairs programme and almost immediately runs into the stories nobody wants on air.

Ben Whishaw plays Freddie Lyon, a reporter who smells real politics behind a society death. Romola Garai is producer Bel Rowley, a woman holding a man's job in a world that still treats that as a scandal. Dominic West is the charming anchor with shadows in his past. Against the Suez Crisis and a tangle of espionage, the office becomes a battlefield where the truth can cost a career — sometimes a life.

Creator Abi Morgan threads the backstage of television through a genuine spy thriller, and across two seasons the show earned a name as Britain's sharp answer to Mad Men. Watch for early turns from Peter Capaldi and Vanessa Kirby. It rewards anyone who loves period style, double-edged dialogue and tension that takes its time. Stream The Hour (2011) online on iFILM.