The Hour

[tammyy2j]

Hannah Tointon and Tom Burke have been added to the cast of BBC Two's Abi Morgan-penned drama series The Hour.

The duo join The Thick of It star Peter Capaldi, who was confirmed as a new cast member for series two earlier today.

Romola Garai, Dominic West, Ben Whishaw, Anna Chancellor and Julian Rhind-Tutt will all return for the second run of the 1950s newsroom drama, which picked up warm critical praise for its first outing in the summer.

Tointon (The Inbetweeners) is cast as a club hostess who catches the eye of Hector Madden (West), while Tom Burke (State of Play) will play an industry rival and love interest for Bel Rowley (Garai). Capaldi plays Randall Brown, a new eccentric head of news at the BBC.

The six new episodes will feature the broadcast team "deeply embroiled in cover-ups, sexual intrigues and the resurgence of Mosley's fascism" and will have the "looming spectre of the Cold War" as its backdrop.

Filming started earlier this week in London and the second series is expected to air in summer 2012.

[tammyy2j]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4InX8700Xk&feature=player_embedded

[tammyy2j]

The Hour has been axed by BBC2 and will not return for a third series, it's been confirmed.

The period drama, which was set in the 1950s and concerned the genesis of a fictional current affairs programme on BBC Television, was created by Abi Morgan and starred Dominic West, Ben Whishaw and Romola Garai.

It had been the original intention of the production company behind the programme, Kudos, to produce at least three series. Jane Featherstone, chief executive of Kudos Film and Television, said she was "sad and disappointed" by the decision.

The BBC said: "We loved the show but have to make hard choices to bring new shows through."

In its two years on air, The Hour received four Golden Globes nominations, having been shown on BBC America, and three Bafta nominations. In 2011 it was named as one of the 20 best shows of the year by Radio Times critics.

However, series two, which aired in November and December 2012, saw the show struggle to attract large numbers of viewers, with fewer than 1.5m tuning in.