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Original poster

The Hour - episode 5

26 replies

clutterqueen · 16/08/2011 22:07

probable SPOILER ALERT

Anyone just finished watching this? What the heck was that stuff with Lord Elms - is he himself a spy? What did he mean by "men like us"?

OP posts:
Original poster
clutterqueen · 16/08/2011 22:14

cmon - anyone?!

OP posts:
PlumSykes · 16/08/2011 22:15

I think he just meant 'men in the Government'

Freddie said to him "Who do you mean by 'they'?" So, the Brits or teh Soviets, I suppose, and Lord Elms was confirming he meant the Brits. I think.

Original poster
clutterqueen · 16/08/2011 22:16

hmm. so how did he end up being responsible for Ruth's death do you think?

OP posts:
PlumSykes · 16/08/2011 22:17

Hmm. Will ponder and get back to you.

Original poster
clutterqueen · 16/08/2011 22:24

if you could please! Grin

Good tho innit? I even fancy the posh one now.

OP posts:
MurielTheActor · 18/08/2011 22:55

I don't think he just meant Brits, or 'men in government' more the men who make up the government/ the upper class/ privileged/ top drawer/ top public school/ Oxbridge educated - those that make all the decisions. And it was his realisation that being one of them meant that his daughter would be caught up in their actions and so he is responsible for her death by association.
I think....

teejwood · 19/08/2011 13:22

agree with Muriel - accepting the deaths of other innocent people for the sake of national security was fine as long as it wasn't his own daughter. now he is having to face the consequences of not standing up and querying whether the actions of his peers were morally correct.
he did not want her to die - he thought if he could marry her off and cover up the baby's paternity she would be safe. so who killed her? i did wonder if it was Kish, but perhaps he really was just watching from the pavement while the real perpetrator was inside.

PlumSykes · 19/08/2011 13:32

Have just realised we go away on Tuesday. Will Sky+ it, but will have to wait another WHOLE week to watch it. Dammit!

MrsCampbellBlack · 19/08/2011 13:33

Its just so good isn't it!

pamplemousserose · 24/08/2011 07:48

So disappointed with the end of this... fed up of watching 6 weeks of a program for it to have a shit ending

ppeatfruit · 24/08/2011 11:06

pamplemousserose i've been disappointed right through this, so the ending wasn't a surprise only more of the same IFYSWIM.

i did think that the actual Hour was finally done well with Hector loosing it and the young man showing his true strengths; the matching winning and loosing of Bel was sexist but inevitable, I don't remember seeing Bell sticking her neck out for him though does anyone?

Did anyone guess that Clarence was the mole?

On the whole IMO it could have been done a lot better.

higgle · 24/08/2011 13:13

I knew clarence was the villain, his pantomime grimace when he was muttering about there being a mole at the BBC rather gave it away.

ColdSancerre · 24/08/2011 13:17

I was also disappointed. I rarely make the effort to watch series, now I remember why.

pamplemousserose · 24/08/2011 13:27

It would have been better if Clarence had killed Freddie, or if Belle and Freddie had got together. I wonder if there will be a second series.

ChazsBrilliantAttitude · 24/08/2011 13:58

The ending left me feeling really flat. It was neat and tidy I suppose but dull.

ppeatfruit · 24/08/2011 15:52

I did get the feeling that Bell and Freddie were going to get it together, but the whole series seemed to be about stopping the audience actually enjoying it; as if it was old fashioned to actually spell anything out so we could understand it!! You could hear the meetings of the producers and writers etc. ' yeah y'know let's not let anyone know anything make it cool man' etc.

A shame; a waste of time and a waste of a little talent.

javo · 25/08/2011 18:51

I enjoyed the HOur, but still don't understand why Mr Kish felt obliged to kill himself - since everyone seemed to running around with some knowledge of the spy/MI6 plot.

have read that it is being commissioned for a second series

Pawsnclaws · 25/08/2011 21:26

Bugger missed the last one - had to go with ds3 to hospital that evening. Anyone kind enough to summarise in a sentence or so?!

ChazsBrilliantAttitude · 25/08/2011 22:53

Paws its on the BBC iPlayer

Pawsnclaws · 25/08/2011 23:01

Thanks!

Jix · 25/08/2011 23:10

So Ruth was a Soviet spy... M16 had suspicions about her and murdered her because she knew about the plot to assassinate Nasser.. is that right?

And Javo.. I totally agree with you.. I still don't get it why Mr Kish killed himself. Anyone else got any ideas?

I'm left a bit confused and a feeling the story just didn't hang together.

Thought Ben Whatshisname was great as Freddie though.

javo · 26/08/2011 10:03

Jix - that was my understanding about Ruth. However, it seemed a bit extreme to murder her since Lix was able to find out about the assassination plot with just one call "to her man in Cairo" - no a great secret.

Just felt at the end it didn't quite hang together - still I enjoyed it - so little to watch atm

pinkteddy · 26/08/2011 16:01

Agree with other posters, I enjoyed the series and there was some great acting, in particular by Ben Whishaw, Anna Chancellor and Tim Piggott Smith but the ending was very disappointing. It was obvious that Clarence was the mole from weeks ago and the reason why Mr Kishaw killed himself wasn't answered at all IMO.

Jix · 26/08/2011 17:22

And more than a plot that doesn't hold together, it's not even that accurate. They made such a big play of getting the historic details right (comparing it to Mad Men etc) but actually at the time of the Suez Crisis there was a very controversial news programme that was on air, that apparently had very lively debates, including a contribution from a young Michael Foot.

Mind you, I have gleaned that bit of trivia from Wikipedia (look up the Suez crisis) so can't guarantee it's accurate.

Nevertheless, it seems pretty poor to be showing the BBC hamstrung to such an extent by the govt, when that simply wasn't the case.

Hmph.

Jix · 26/08/2011 17:25

For anyone's that interested...

"The news of the invasion sparked protests against the war in Britain. On the popular television talk show Free Speech, an especially bitter debate took place on October 31 with the leftish historian A. J. P. Taylor and the Labour journalist Michael Foot (who were opposed to the war) calling their colleague on Free Speech, the Conservative M.P. Robert Boothby a ?criminal? for supporting the war.[281] One television critic spoke of Free Speech during the Suez war that ?the team seemed to not only on the verge of, but actually losing their tempers...Boothby boomed, Foot fumed and Taylor trephined, with apparent real malice??.[282] The angry, passionate, much-watched debates about the Suez war on Free Speech mirrored the divided public response to the war.[283] The Labour Party and the Trade Union Congress organized anti-war protests, starting on November 1 under the slogan ?Law, not war!?[284] On November 4, at an anti-war rally in Trafalgar Square attended by 30, 000 people, the Labour M.P. Aneurin Bevan accused the government of ?a policy of bankruptcy and aggression?.[285]"

.. but I accept I may be giving a little tooo much detail. Now going back to making tea-time..!