BBC ‘The Hour’, series 2 episode 2

Sorry that this review has been a while coming.

Anyway, episode 2 of The Hour begins with Hector being arrested for supposedly assaulting Kiki Delaine. Hector swears he’s innocent, but Marnie says she’s not sure she believes him. Luckily for Hector, he is soon released. Marnie, however, does not welcome him back with open arms. Instead, she tells him that she intends for them to go their separate ways from now on, with regards to their private lives, whilst maintaining a public facade of marital harmony. Marnie is finally asserting her independence. She even auditions, successfully, for a cookery television show. I’m glad that Marnie has decided to live her own life, and not let Hector walk all over her anymore. I look forward to seeing how Hector reacts to the news of his wife’s new career.

(Dominic West as Hector Madden.)

Elsewhere, Freddie’s new wife, Camille, is upset when a yobbish teenage boy throws soot in her face for associating with a black man (Sey Ola, Cissy’s boyfriend).  Freddie tries to comfort her, but she says that she hates Britain and wants to go back to France. Later, she and Freddie get into a blazing row, and Camille accuses him of loving ‘The Hour’ more than he love her. Although Freddie insists to Bel that all is well in Paradise, I can’t help thinking that an irrevocable wedge is being driven between husband and wife. Will they weather the storm? It probably doesn’t help that Freddie’s solution to the soot-throwing issue is to invite both the boy, Trevor (who harbours some rather fascist opinions), and Sey Ola onto the set of ‘The Hour’ to discuss their views on immigration and race. Randall is scandalised. What! A fascist appearing on a BBC programme? AND, in front of members of the board? Surely not! However Freddie, being Freddie, manages to pull it off. When Bel and Freddie are discussing Freddie’s marriage later on, Bel says to him, “I wish you had consulted me before doing such a stu-…such a stu-…wonderful thing.” Freddie just looks at her hard and says, “And what would you have done?” He then walks away. Has Bel really missed her chance? Will she a pursue, instead, a relationship with Bill Kendall (who she discovers, via Lix, is a widower)?

Freddie and Bel work together in an attempt to find out the truth about Kiki. Who hit her? How did she end up posing for nude photographs? The first question is answered when we discover that she has a lover who is high up in the police force (if someone could please clarify for me who exactly the man is, his name at least, then that would be great!) It seems that this man does not like sharing Kiki with other men, and is less than pleased to learn of the existence of the nude photos. I predict more trouble for Kiki very soon. I only hope that Bel and Freddie can solve the mysteries surrounding her and her past before she gets hurt again. Or worse.

A final note on Hector: I can’t help feeling sorry for him. Sure, he can be an arrogant whatsit who expects everything in life to fall perfectly into place for him. Sure, he’s been a rubbish husband to Marnie. Still, it was sad watching him witness his life crumbling before his eyes. Freddie’s taking his job, Marnie has all but left him, he’s an alcoholic… I hope that his friends can rally together to help him get back on his feet, or I fear there’ll be a sad ending for Hector.

Another very enjoyable episode. Whishaw, Garai and West (as well as the rest of the cast) continue to impress, and I look forward to seeing how the various plotlines develop further.

(All photos ©BBC 2012.)

BBC ‘The Hour’ series 2, episode 1

(Dominic West as Hector Madden, Romola Garai as Bel Rowley and Ben Whishaw as Freddie Lyon.)

The Hour is back! We’re in 1957, so what’s changed?

Frazzled producer Bel Rowley (Romola Garai) is trying to keep ‘The Hour’ afloat in Freddie Lyon’s (Ben Whishaw) absence. There is a new Head of News, Randall Brown (Peter Capaldi) who so happens to be an old flame of Lix’s. That could be awkward.

(Peter Capaldi as Randall Brown.)

Hector Madden (Dominic West) is enjoying the perks of being a celebrity. You know what they say: “The brightest stars burn out the fastest.” Hector whiles many an hour away in El Paradis Club in Soho. There, he meets a young cabaret girl and prostitute, Kiki Delaine (Hannah Tointon). The poor girl end up badly beaten, and it seems from the trailer for the next episode, that Hector will be blamed. There are two poignant scenes featuring Kiki: 1) Kiki sits crying on her bath tub in a dank bathroom, tentatively inspecting her cuts and bruises. 2) Having covered up the worst of her injuries with makeup and a strategically placed hairstyle, Kiki performs on the club stage, watched by an audience of men, one of whom is her assaulter. There are three suspects: Hector (unlikely IMO), Kiki’s manager (looks shifty) and also an executive from ITV who shows an interest in Bel, despite being married. (What is it with Bel and married men?!)

(Hannah Tointon as Kiki Delaine.)

Not everyone is a fan of Hector’s new lifestyle, in particular Bel, Randall and Marnie (Oona Chaplin). Hector continually shows up on set seconds before the show goes on air, with such a blasé attitude that Randall eventually gives him an ultimatum: either he clears up his act or he clears out. Hector seems to be keeping his options open, as he is (figuratively) seduced by executives from ITV’s new rival news show, ‘Uncovered’. Will Hector abandon ‘The Hour’? Meanwhile, his poor wife, Marnie, is left at home, trying to be a model housewife which proves difficult as her husband is noticeably absent most of the time.

(Oona Chaplin as Marnie Madden and Dominic West as Hector Madden.)

In true irreverent, Freddie-style, Freddie Lyon makes a breezy reappearance in the middle of a staff meeting. Apparently he’s been travelling the world and has come back with 1) a dubious beard 2) a French wife. Bel is less than pleased about both, and is exceedingly shocked upon discovering the latter. I predict that Freddie’s new wife, Camille, will either be murdered before the series is out, or bog off back to her native country, leaving Freddie (temporarily) heartbroken. It’s pretty obvious that he still harbours feelings for Bel, but how does she feel about him? Is the revelation that Freddie is now married enough for her to realise that she loves him or is she just shocked that her best friend got hitched without telling her? A bit of both, I think. There is a fair bit of sexual tension between Bel and Freddie. I just wonder if this will ever be realised. Freddie seems calmer and more self-assured this time around, and I also love that he still calls Bel “Moneypenny”. Cute!

(Ben Whishaw as Freddie Lyon and Romola Garai as Bel Rowley.)

Randall is thrilled that Freddie is back on the scene, and immediately crowns him as co-host with Hector. Freddie is pleased, Hector is not. Freddie is eager to address real issues in Britain, such as the crime rate in Soho. I sense another conspiracy coming to light very soon… …

All in all, a great episode and a fantastic start to the new series. I can’t wait for Wednesday evening now!

(All photos ©BBC 2012.)

BBC The Hour Episode 6

Last night saw the final episode of The Hour. The episode could be summed up in one word: Tension. Firstly, there was tension between Bel and Clarence over what the team of ‘The Hour’ could and could not show on the programme. Bel wanted to show some controversial pieces. Clarence gave her a big fat NO.

Secondly, Hector confronted Bel in her office and said those three big words: “I love you.” However, to a flustered Bel, they didn’t seem all that important as her, as her rather scathing response was, “Is that the best you can do?” Apparently not, so Bel and Hector’s affair was finito. A third bout of tension came from trophy wife, Marnie Madden. Hector, it seems, had been copying Lix and sleeping in the office. Marnie sweetly asked her husband if he was planning to return home soon, and when he failed to answer, Marnie dropped her façade and gave Hector a blunt ultimatum: He could come home now, or she would divorce him. Good on her. Much as I like Hector, and I do, my sympathy for Marnie’s plight has grown with every episode and when she told Hector, “there’s only so much humiliation a girl can take”, I really felt for her. To top it all off for poor Hector, Marnie’s influential father gave him the “Think where your loyalties lie” speech. Ouch.

Ok, now on to Freddie for the fourth lot of tension. To begin with, a couple of MI6 men came into the office to question Freddie, and to advise him, for his own good, to leave Lord and Lady Elms alone in their grief. However, I think you can guess how much notice Freddie took of that. Yep, that’s right, none whatsoever. I am going to discuss the major developments in The Conspiracy nearer the end of this review.

Anyway, the main focus of the episode was on the news programme ‘The Hour’ itself. Creepy Angus McCain showed up at the studio to “supervise” and censor, if necessary, the content. Thus, when the programme started, let’s just say he was not best pleased… To begin with, they showed the footage of the London riots, with the people shouting “we won’t fight in Eden’s war”, and a shot of a policeman whacking a civilian over the head with a truncheon. Angus’s fake smile began to slide from his face… Then came Isaac’s sketch about the Suez crisis, for which the premise was a horse race between the Superpowers pushing to gain control. By this point, Angus was practically crushing his whiskey glass in anger. The final nail in the coffin was an interview with none other than Lord Elms, whom Freddie interviewed. Freddie asked him his opinion of the government and  Lord Elms said sadly, “All that I believed, all that I held true has been turned upside down.” His loss of faith in the government was of course due to the death of his daughter Ruth, and Lord Elms publically accused the government of being “liars and murderers”. Freddie launched into his long overdue speech, of which the gist was, “If we cannot question the government, we are not a democracy.” However, this was the last straw for McCain and the programme was shut down whilst Freddie was mid-word and Bel was promptly fired. It was the end of ‘The Hour’.

Now to sum up what we learnt of The Conspiracy in this episode, well, my interpretation of it anyway and please do correct me if I’ve got it all wrong!

• Thomas Kish and Peter Darrell were sent on a secret mission to Egypt to assassinate President Nasser. The plan was to bribe Nasser’s dentist into poisoning him. Ruth Elms was to be the bait. Ruth agreed, as, being in love with Peter, she would have done anything he asked of her.
• Ruth had been put on the Brightstone list by Darrell, so I guessed that she agreed to be involved in the assassination plan, thinking that she was going it as a Brightstone.
• However, Peter Darrell was still working for MI6 and it was in fact the British government who wanted Nasser dead. When Ruth realised that this mission was for MI6 not for the Soviets, she then knew too much and was swiftly murdered.
• Clarence was the Soviet agent working within the BBC (the sneaky devil – who’d have thought it? I’d only have been more surprised if it had been Isaac…or Sissy!). It was Clarence who put Freddie on the Brightstone list. Peter Darrell‘s “Revert to Brightstone” message was for Clarence to find a new spy, as Peter suspected that he would soon die. Clarence chose Freddie and burnt the coded cigarette paper to prevent it being traced back to him.

So, at the end of the episode:

• Clarence told Freddie to run the story of him being a Soviet agent – “Tell the world what I am.”
• Hector went back home with Marnie.
• Isaac plucked up the courage to ask Sissy out for a drink, and she accepted – aaw!
• Bel and Freddie had a bit of an “I hate you” “I hate you more” argument, but left the studio as friends.

Final thoughts on the series:

I enjoyed the showdown between McCain and co. and the team of ‘The Hour’, with the team flaunting their rule breaking in front of a live audience. The hopeless romantic in me would have liked to have seen Bel and Freddie get together, as it’s clear they really cared for each other (even if Freddie was more in tune with his feelings than Bel). However, in the context of the episode, it made more sense that they didn’t as she had only just broken up her relationship with Hector. But, the shot of them leaving the studio led me to hope that in the future, it may just happen. Perhaps in a second series? What do you think?

(Photo Credits © BBC/Laurence Cendrowicz)

BBC The Hour Episode 5

“It’s inappropriate, unprofessional and it must end.”

Such was Clarence’s verdict on Bel and Hector’s affair in this week’s episode of The Hour. Unsurprisingly, as they conducted the affair with about as much subtlety as a Strictly Come Dancing costume, everyone at the office knew of the liaison, and Clarence was not happy about it. Nor, it seems, was Hector, as the opening scene showed that Bel’s dependence on Freddie and Hector’s subsequent insecurity had put a strain on the relationship. Hector claimed that Bel was “more herself” when she was with Freddie.

Bel had a surprise visitor this week: Marnie Madden decided to pay a call, to warn Bel to keep her mitts off her man or else. Or words to that effect. In short Marnie, who was still trying to maintain a smiling façade, informed Miss Rowley that Hector had strayed many times before, although it was usually with young secretaries whose “little fingers” Marnie later had to prise from Hector’s arm. Poor defenseless Hector. According to Mrs Madden, Hector is merely “on loan” to Bel and “he always comes back”. Marnie said all of this with her usual frank sweetness; nonetheless it came like a slap in the face to Bel. It seems that pressure was coming to her from all avenues to break off the affair, as she later got a ticking off from Clarence in his office, the latter believing that her indiscretions could lead to the downfall of ‘The Hour’.

I think Bel wants to prove to everyone that she can be the ultimate power woman: having a successful career whilst maintaining a steady relationship with a man. However, her plan appears to be crumbling down: the affair with Hector is quickly souring and creepy Angus McCain hinted that funding for ‘The Hour’ may just dry up if they don’t present the government’s political views. Bel told him that the BBC preferred to be unbiased, allowing the opposition their say, and McCain could like it or lump it. Besides, she added, not everyone likes the government. Too true.

 

So what happened with Freddie and his investigation this week? Well firstly, he walked into his flat to find Lady Elms chatting with Mr Lyon Snr. (On a side note: does Freddie’s father own any clothes at all apart from his customary striped pyjamas?) Anyway, it transpired that Lady Elms had been lying in wait for Freddie, to tell him to stop phoning her and her husband. (Did this remind anyone else of the scene in the ‘Acafellas’ episode of Glee, in which Josh Groban confronted his die-hard fan Sandy Ryerson and told him, “Stop calling me…stop emailing me…stop sending me locks of your hair…”? Maybe Freddie should stop sending Lady E. locks of his hair… I digress, sorry.) Lady Elms asked Freddie to leave them alone in their grief, but Freddie promptly retorted, “That’s not grief, that’s shameful denial.” Freddie was also still being followed and Hector managed to help him evade his pursuers by giving him a woman’s headscarf to wear! When Freddie started to remove it once inside Hector’s car, Hector told him that “a woman never removes her hat in a gentleman’s car.” I can’t say that Freddie made a particularly fetching lady – probably not to Hector’s taste anyway…

So, what of the Brightstone mystery? Among all the political drama in this week’s episode, including violent street riots, Hector managed to get the truth (or at least part of it) from Angus McCain over a drink. This is how I interpreted it:

– Peter Darrell used to be a member of MI6, but was also a spy and a traitor, passing messages to the Soviets.

– Ruth Elms was Darrell’s lover and became pregnant by him, as well as becoming involved in his work for the Soviets.

– Thomas Kish, Angus McCain, Lord Elms among others were informed of Peter Darrell’s allegiance with the Soviets. Darrell was then killed.

– When Ruth’s parents discovered her connection with Darrell, and her pregnancy, they tried to marry her off to actor Adam le Ray. Le Ray was blackmailed into the arrangement – if he didn’t marry Ruth, his sexual preferences would be exposed. Was I right to infer that Adam and Angus were in a homosexual relationship together?

– The Soviets had a list of people who fulfilled the criteria of being young, smart, a bit of a rebel and opposed to the government, who would be willing to betray their country for them. These people were dubbed ‘Brightstones’. Peter and Ruth were on the list and in a shock revelation at the end of the episode by Lord Elms, so was FREDDIE! That would explain why Kish was after him, and why he is still being stalked.

What McCain didn’t explain was the ‘Revert to Brightstone’ coded message. My only guess is that Darrell knew Kish was on to him and wanted the powers-that-be to revert to another ‘Brightstone’ on the list – Ruth one presumes. Hopefully this will become clear next week.

Overall, another enjoyable episode. I really hope that Bel and Freddie get together by the end – there were more sweet moments between them this week and when Freddie phoned her in the middle of the night to ask why Ruth came to him for help, Bel told him that if she were in trouble, Freddie would be the first person to whom she’s run. Aaw!

Negative point: We still don’t know why the Mysterious Blue Urn was significant. I want to know!

Anyway, roll on the final episode next week – I’m going to miss this series when it finishes!

(Watermarked photos © BBC/ cultbox.co.uk)

BBC The Hour Episode 4

Just when I thought the apparent conspiracy in The Hour couldn’t get any more convoluted, I was proved wrong in last night’s episode…

Ok, so last night saw Freddie continuing his investigations into the deaths of Ruth Elms and Peter Darrell, as he attempts to recover from the shock of Thomas Kish’s sudden death in last week’s episode. He went to visit Mrs Kish to apparently offer his condolences but in true Freddie style, he used the opportunity to interrogate the grieving widow. Fantastic timing of course, but then again Freddie was never known for his tact. He told her: “I’m not here to hurt you, I’m from the BBC.” As if that would console her! Although Mrs Kish was very reluctant to divulge any information, Freddie managed to worm out of her that Peter Darrell apparently betrayed Thomas Kish and Kish then tried to cut Peter out of his life. Mrs Kish also confessed that she suspected Thomas of killing Peter, and that he probably killed Ruth too. She then told Freddie to keep Kish’s raincoat, as he would obviously no longer need it. Am I the only one who thought it was rather creepy seeing Freddie walking round in a dead man’s coat? No? Just me?

Anyway, when Freddie left the Kish household, he noticed that he was being followed (very un-subtly I might add) and it seems “They” were the ones following him. He confronted Clarence about it and told him all about his investigation (probably a stupid idea) and Clarence burnt the square of perforated paper which had revealed the clues in the crossword and told Freddie to forget all about it, especially as MI6  had called into the office more than once to question Freddie. Freddie, however, had been AWOL at the time – not eating, sleeping or shaving and missing all his work deadlines. I’m not sure which side Clarence is on: he seemed to be supporting Freddie, but he was later seen talking secretly with Angus McCain who is decidedly shifty. And has weird glasses.

Freddie, who apparently doesn’t bother going to work at all anymore, also paid a call to Ruth Elms’s mother who, just like Mrs Kish, was every keen to avoid giving away any information. Poor Freddie, no one wants to make his job easy do they? I just hope that Freddie’s determination to play Avenging Angel doesn’t just lead him to his maker.

As things became more tense back in the studio with regards to Egypt and Hungary, it transpired that Kish had been trying to sniff out a Soviet agent, and had suspected Freddie. Personally, I think that was an excuse – I think the ‘conspiracy’ runs deeper than that as surely Ruth Elms had nothing to do with  Soviets?! I could be wrong, of course.

Elsewhere, Bel and Hector’s affair continued to flourish, with the pair of them becoming more and more reckless about where they embraced. Hector managed to get out of an evening with his ever-smiling wife, Marnie, by claiming to have work at the office he needed to finish. It was a plausible lie until he forgot to take his briefcase with him, leading his wife to guess where he was really going. Her suspicion was confirmed later on when we were shown a sex scene which only just managed to escape my mother’s normally infallible sex-on-screen radar – she always seems to sense when there’s a sex/ heavy making out scene in a film or TV show I’m watching and invariably chooses that moment to walk in the room and stand there making disapproving noises and comments. Highly awkward.

It was also Freddie’s birthday and after a rather drunken night at a local club, he and Lix (!!!) ended up in a passionate clinch back in the office. I rather doubt that that liaison will last long, especially as Freddie is so obviously in love with Bel and I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before she realises that she loves him too. There were a few sweet moments between Bel and Freddie in this week’s episode. Firstly, Bel showed a maternal/sisterly concern for Freddie’s wellbeing when he finally turned up for work, telling him to go home and sleep. Later on, he showed a similar protective affection for her, as he asked (of Hector), “is he nice to you?” Still, it was clear that he was hurt when he found out about the affair, but bottled up his own feelings so that only we, the viewers, could see them.

The big question we were left with at the end of this episode was: what is the significance of the large blue urn, which is seen in the video of Kish, Ruth and Darrell? Dun, dun DUN! Oh, and who is Brightstone? Seeing as we still don’t know…

Predictions for next week:

• Marnie confronts Bel about the affair, which begins to crumble or completely disintegrates.
• Freddie solves the mystery of The Blue Urn.

Predictions for the end of the series:

• Bel and Hector break up. He goes back to his wife and she realises it was Freddie she loved all along.
• Freddie nearly dies as the conspiracy comes to a climax – I really hope that Freddie doesn’t have to die before Bel realises her feelings for his, as that would be a miserable ending. I hate miserable endings.
• Isaac and the little secretary get together.
• Lots of other political stuff happens 🙂

(Watermarked photos © BBC/ cultbox.co.uk)

BBC The Hour Episode 3

Well, BBC 2’s drama The Hour is certainly hotting up, in more ways than one. Firstly we have the growing relationship, sizzling with sexual tension, between producer Bel Rowley (Romola Garai) and frontman Hector Madden. Bel and reporter Freddie (Ben Whishaw) were invited to a weekend shooting party at the home of  Hector and his wife, Marnie (Oona Chaplin). Other guests at this gathering included actor Adam le Ray (former fiancé of dead debutante Ruth Elms) and creepy Angus McCain (the Prime Minister’s ‘eyes and ears’).

Amateur sleuth Freddie was glad of a chance to question le Ray about his relationship with Ruth. What Freddie found out, when le Ray was drunk, was that they ordered that he marry Ruth, as she was in trouble, and he was told that if he went through with the marriage, no one would know ‘what he was’. All very cryptic. It all seems to come back to the mysterious they. Bel told Freddie that saying that a girl was in trouble was a euphemism for saying that she was pregnant. But was concealing a pregnancy all that was going on between Ruth, Adam and the omnipresent they? We wait with baited breath…

Meanwhile Bel and Hector struggled (and failed) to keep their hands off each other. They resorted to stealing heated kisses in the corridors, as the other house guests played sardines. Marnie Madden later noticed a smear of red lipstick behind Hector’s ear, but didn’t question it. I find her an interesting character: surely Bel is not the first woman that Hector has pursued whilst married and he is hardly subtle, and yet his wife acts oblivious. She says that she deliberately placed Bel and Freddie in adjoining rooms ‘just in case’ they were secretly a couple, despite Hector assuring her that nothing was going on between Bel and Freddie. One guess is that Marnie senses the attraction between her husband and Bel and rather than making a big fuss about it and thus breaking the façade of a perfect marriage, she encourages a liaison between Bel and Freddie in the hope that it will cause anything going on between Hector and Bel to disintegrate.  Fat lot of good her scheming  did, as Bel and Hector wasted no time in ‘sealing the deal’ in Bel’s flat after he drove her home.

I do also wonder if Marnie Madden’s motives in inviting Bel to stay for the weekend in the first place mirrored my suspected motives for why Angus McCain offered Freddie a job working for him – I reckon it was a case of ‘keep your friends close and your enemies closer’ and both parties wanted to keep an eye on someone they suspected of deviance.

Now for the furtive Thomas Kish… Freddie told his assistant Isaac to keep an eye on Kish and Isaac eagerly went about doing his best (not very good) attempt at Hercule Poirot. Freddie’s flat was later ransacked, leaving Mr Lyon Snr. sobbing in shock and Freddie’s top suspect was Kish, although the expressionless Kish denied it. Freddie spent a large part of the episode puzzling over his notebook containing the supposed clues he found in the crosswords. A phrase which stood out to him was ‘Revert to Brightstone’. As fate would have it, Kish and Freddie end up in the office alone together and Freddie, blunt as always, tries to question him. Kish tell him that he know too much and chases Freddie through the office, intent on murder. However, in an interesting twist, Kish tell Freddie that he should be looking for someone called Brightstone, rather than something, before falling over the stairway banister to his death.

It seems therefore that my suspicion that Kish was a spy and assassin on someone else’s behalf rather than a murderer with a personal motive, was true. Suddenly Kish is a human being, a man with a wife and children, not just a cold-blooded killer with a blank, mask-like face. Shame he had to die before we discovered this.

I thoroughly enjoyed this episode – this series is going from strength to strength for me. The blossoming camaraderie between Hector and Freddie is particularly endearing and the costumes are still gorgeous! I especially loved the silk dress Bel wore on the evening of the game of sardines.

Of course the big question, which I’m sure Freddie will not hesitate to investigate, is who on earth is Brightstone?

(Photo credits © BBC/ Laurence Cendrowicz)

BBC The Hour Episode 2

Last night I watched the second episode of BBC 2’s new six-part drama, The Hour. For those who don’t know, the drama it set in the BBC during the 1950s, as a team put together a new news programme, called ‘The Hour’. In amongst the behind-the-scenes chaos, are journalist Freddie’s (Ben Whishaw) growing investigations into two mysterious deaths, which he is determined to solve.

It also stars Romola Garai as the show’s producer, Bel Rowley and Dominic West and the charming and charismatic front man of the show, Hector Madden. The trio of Whishaw, Garai and West makes for good chemistry between the leads and the growing tension between them (particularly the sexual tension between independent Bel and debonair Hector) is great to watch.

 

Admittedly, the first episode which aired last week felt a little muddled, but I think that this was understandable as the script had to establish the plot, introduce the characters, the links between them, and on top of that, there were two murders, one taking place within the first ten minutes of the episode.

So, this week, it felt like this drama had found its sea-legs and the plot flowed far more smoothly. There were some critics last week who felt that the plot about the workings of a news programme was enough without the murder conspiracy as well, but I feel that as long as the murder plot doesn’t completely take over, then I think both threads of the story should be able to work well together. I think it’s all about getting the balance right.

Something I find very interesting is that the murderer, Thomas Kish (Burn Gorman) is now working in the same office as Freddie, as Freddie is trying to find out who-dunnit and why! So as Freddie digs deeper into the apparent conspiracy, he is so far oblivious to the fact that the murderer is right in front of his nose and is catching on to Freddie’s intentions. Therefore I find myself urging Freddie to solve the mystery quickly before he himself is bumped off for knowing too much. However, at the end of the episode, Freddie was given a film tape by the father of the girl, Ruth, who was the second murder victim, which showed Kish apparently on holiday with Ruth. So hopefully Freddie will now at least suspect Kish and keep the nature of his investigations quiet.

I think that this drama is well acted, the costumes are gorgeous (especially those worn by Garai) and I love the nostalgic feel to it. I just hope that this drama will keep going on a high, as I really look forward to seeing how the plot thickens and unfolds…