Bel Rowley quotes from The Hour

Bel

What's the point of the Secret Service if they're not actually secret?

Bel

[to Clarence] Is it not our duty as journalists to present balanced news frankly, fearlessly and reasonably?

Bel

[to Freddie] Do you calculate in advance how to make me look a fool or does inspiration strike you in the moment?

Bel

A new programme, a new era. And they want me as producer.

Freddie

They're humouring you. They don't want a woman. A woman is difficult, hysterical. And you can never really find one who will ever stay. A couple more years, you'll probably want a baby.

Bel

Oh, don't speak!

Freddie

And even if they don't say that to your face, that's what they're thinking. Anything else is just your vanity making you believe...

Bel

What? That I can do it? That I can actually do this? Watch me.

Bel

You know some nice girl needs to rescue you.

Freddie

Who? There's only ever been you. And you're not even that nice.

Bel

You know that a monthly subscription to Marvel's All-True Crime doesn't make you a real detective?

Freddie

Doesn't it?

Hector

My first girlfriend was a debutante. I wrote her pages of godawful poetry during the war.

Bel

Line?

Hector

Happily forgotten.

Bel

I don't think I've ever been sent love poetry.

Freddie

Yes, you have.

Bel

How many did you miss?

Freddie

As many as I could. Don't like shooting things.

Bel

Well, how do you think they killed that beef you had for lunch?

Freddie

With boredom?

Freddie

Why would you marry someone you didn't love?

Bel

Are you asking? Because you were lonely. Because you had to.

Freddie

Because you were in trouble.

Bel

Pregnant?

Freddie

Is that... That is what "trouble" means?

Bel

Poor, innocent boy.

Bel

Five years from now, I'll be doing what I do now a bit better. I won't live in Clapham. I'll have an exquisite apartment.

Freddie

In Lucerne. It's supposed to be very beautiful.

Bel

Too many cuckoo clocks.

Freddie

We'd never buy a cuckoo clock.

Bel

Oh, good. You'll be there.

Freddie

Of course.

Bel

The commute would be a bit tricky.

Freddie

I'll buy a sea plane.

Bel

Oh, naturally.

Freddie

Land in Tooting Bec Lido each morning. Up on the Northern Line, cross onto the Central and...

Bel

What will we do with the children?

Freddie

Gilbert and Maud? Glove compartment.

Bel

Thank God for that. And we'd be happy.

Freddie

Ecstatic. We won't want to be anywhere else. With anyone else.

Freddie

Why did Ruth come to me?

Bel

Because you're tenacious. Because you care more about the truth than you do about your own safety. Because if I was scared for my life, I would run to you. And trust that you would know the answer.

Freddie

Ladies and gentlemen. If we cannot debate that which troubles our society, and more importantly troubles our government, then we cannot, in all honestly, calls ourselves a democracy. If we cannot question our leaders as they embark on what has been called an illegal military action, an action publicly opposed by the United States government...

Shut it down, now.

Freddie

...and the countries of the United Nations Security Council...

I want it off, now!

Freddie

If we cannot reasonably and intelligently query our politicians...

Shut down The Hour.

Freddie

...about the rightness of an action that appears at heart to be deceitful...

Do it now.

Freddie

...then we are not a free...

[to Bel] You're fired.

Bel

Right. I expected nothing less.

Bel

Ambition over integrity, Hector. Well done.

Hector

Freddie needed a chance.

Bel

Liar.

Freddie

Do you trust me?

Bel

More than anyone else.

Freddie

Not good enough. Missed the mark again.

Bel

I hate you. I hate you.

Freddie

I hate you too.

Randall Brown

Uncovered are snapping at your heels?

Bel

And despite ITV's attempts to colonise many aspects of the show, The Hour is still exemplary in its field.

Randall Brown

Imitation is the highest form of flattery.

Bel

Exactly.

Randall Brown

Except it's better.

Bel

I'm sorry?

Randall Brown

Uncovered is better.