Time trials

It’s amazing what can be squeezed into an hour of The Hour (Wednesday, BBC2): smutty photos, gang violence, bent coppers, illegal gambling, fascism, racism, a political cover-up, a media exposé, leaked documents, seduction, abuse, neglect, the corrupting temptations of celebrity, the corrupting temptations of complicated dessert recipes, a dog in space, the threat to the nation of nuclear war, the threat to the BBC of commercial television and the threat to an English bluestocking of a sexy, bare-legged French girl with a carving knife, a wedding ring and a gamine haircut. The poor old kitchen sink, left out like Cinderella, must have had a dull time sitting at home by itself.

Oddly enough, while all the action and activity made The Hour very enjoyable, the scene that captivated me (and secured my attention for the next six weeks) was the one in which nothing occurred and little was said: Lix Storm (Anna Chancellor) and Randall Brown (newly appointed Head of News, played by Peter Capaldi) held a one-minute parley, alone in Lix’s office, and with it they stole the show.