The real BBC really cancels The Hour

By Sean O'Neal | February 12, 2013 | 8:26pm

Aux Features TV

After two seasons that brought us too dangerously close to The Truth, the BBC—the real-life, unsexy one—has canceled its fake-BBC newsmagazine soap opera The Hour, cowardly caving in to pressure from the British government of 1956. The show that followed Dominic West, Romola Garai, and Ben Whishaw as journalists bravely, sexily investigating stories such as the Suez Crisis dropped dramatically in the real-life, unsexy ratings during its second season, down from 2.9 million viewers to just 1.3 million. Unfortunately, unlike the show within the show, there is no competing, fake-ITV newsmagazine with occasional spy subplots that can pick them up.

Also unfortunate: As viewers know, the second season ended with a fairly massive cliffhanger that left the fate of Whishaw’s character uncertain. Barring the announcement of, say, an Hour Christmas special to wrap things up, you’ll just have to imagine what happens—like, perhaps he pulls through, cleans himself up, and enters a new, less dangerous line of work than TV journalist, such as building deadly gadgets for MI6 agents.