The Hour is a 2011 BBC drama series, written by Abi Morgan and starring Ben Whishaw, Dominic West and Romola Garai. The series centres on a new current affairs show being launched by the BBC in June 1956, at the time of the Suez Crisis (a period setting which has led to comparisons with Mad Men). Bel Rowley (Romola Garai) is the producer of the Show Within a Show; her friend Freddie Lyon (Ben Whishaw) loses the presenter interview to well-spoken Eton boy Hector Madden (Dominic West) but she persuades him to stay on as a researcher. Meanwhile Freddie is suspicious about the reported suicide of an old friend, and when he starts to notice shadowy men following him around, it only confirms his suspicions.