Romola Garai (Atonement) plays Bel Rowley in The Hour, Abi Morgan’s new drama which takes viewers behind the scenes of a 1956 broadcast news room, coming to BBC Two later this month.
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Can you describe your character?
“I play Bel Rowley who is the producer of The Hour. It’s a new TV show that’s being launched as the first ever investigative journalism show on the BBC. It’s modelled on shows like Panorama that were launched in the late Fifties and it’s a very new direction in terms of news journalism on television, so my character and Freddie and Hector are something of a team of trailblazers.”
What attracted you to the part in the first instance?
“I was very, very attracted to the way that Bel was written. I think that Abi writes amazingly well for women and it’s interesting to see a woman in the work place during that period, because it was such an anomaly to find that. I was really attracted to working with Ben and Dominic who I think are just amazing actors. So I guess it was Abi’s writing and the rest of the cast really.”
Are there any parallels between you and Bel? Working in today’s television industry or being ambitious etc?
“I don’t think I’m very ambitious so no. But, I don’t think Bel is ambitious for her own success – I think she’s ambitious to change the face of television. I think she’s ambitious in a very positive way.”
How did you research the role?
“I watched some great documentaries, one of which was made about Lime Grove, which has since been demolished and was where the BBC made all their TV shows until the late Sixties. I also saw a documentary about the Suez Crisis which was really fantastic.
“I also read quite a lot about a woman called Grace Wyndham Goldie who was head of news for about three years at the end of the Fifties. Then obviously Richard Dimbleby is someone that is very influential for Dominic’s character Hector. There is quite a lot written about him, his journalistic style and how it changed television news so we read a bit about that.
“I also met somebody, who’d worked in the early Sixties, he spoke to me about the atmosphere in the news room and particularly how they related to their colleagues who were women and how that was starting to change, which was really useful.”
What do you love about Bel?
“I think she’s very brave but in no way aware of that, which I think is a very attractive kind of quality. She’s somebody who changes things without really needing to make a great song and dance about it. I think there are not many characters that you get to play who have that mixture of a kind of modesty and courage, and I think that’s really attractive.”
What has been your biggest challenge whilst working on the drama?
“I think the biggest challenge was just filming the show. I’ve never done series television before, not for a really long time since I was about 17, and when I did it then I had quite a small role. We had eight pages to shoot every day and Abi Morgan’s dialogue is sophisticated. It’s not easy to learn and I mean that in a good way. It was just being able to get the day shot and trying to make every scene as good as it could be, given that you’re just deadly exhausted”
How would you describe your journey throughout the series? Do you think we see a different Bel at the end than we do at the start?
“Definitely, I think Bel goes on a big journey, which is great. I think when Bel starts off she has really no idea how to run the show properly. She’s not brilliantly well qualified for the job and it becomes clear later on in the show that she had been chosen almost because of her in-expertise or her lack of experience and that the first couple of shows are a disaster. I think her story arc is really about her embracing her ability and her being able to stand on her own two feet as a producer, and that’s a big change for her character.”
What did you think about all costumes and the settings?
“The production design is amazing. Eve Stewart is just one of the most talented production designers out there. The sets are incredible. We’re so lucky to have talent like that in this country. They [the sets] are really transformative, so when you’re working in them, when you’re active in them, your environment really feeds into your performance and that’s great.
“The costumes are lovely and I think it’s an interesting period because this is a show about people at work. So I was weary of making them the costumes too elaborate. I think these shows can become a bit of a fashion plate and I think that that can be distancing. But it’s a very glamorous era so you have to balance your need to represent the characters truthfully with the facts of the era, which was very elaborate. So hopefully we’ve got both of those things just right.”
Do you think The Hour will give people a real insight into the Fifties period?
“Yes I really hope so. It certainly taught me a lot, just reading the scripts and doing the job. I think the Fifties is a really fascinating period of business history, and it’s very different from America as a post-war society. I mean rationing finished two years before the year we’re portraying, and during the course of the show Britain is involved in the Suez Crisis.
“Hopefully it will tie in a lot with contemporary concerns with the Middle East issues as well. So although it will teach people all about our history, hopefully it will also inform them about our present as well.”
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