Tonight in HD: November 5

SoHo Highlight: The Hour (Sky 10, 8.30) When the BBC launched this six-part series, allusions were made to it being a Blighty Mad Men. But The Hour owes more to Broadcast News, from its romantic-triangle of airhead anchor/gung-ho journo/fledgling female producer to its behind-the-scenes media politics — in this case, a “period porn” dramatisation of how (UK) TV news started to come of age in the mid-’50s. The title refers to a current affairs hour that’s a thinly disguised Panorama, which prompted this rebuke from the first editor of the programme in The Times: “To put it kindly, this fictional Panorama is more fiction than it is Panorama. And the portrayal of BBC News is a travesty.” But The Times’ TV critics adored it — although AA Gill said “it mistakes realism for reality” — as did most of the US media. Time magazine called it “the best new show this summer” and the new York Times said “The Hour is so good that it seems far too short”. But it was the Los Angeles Times that best summed up the mix of intrigue and insight: “What makes it so engaging is not that the series finds anything new to twist, but that it works so well with and within the strictures of the well-thumbed genres it combines in equal parts: spy thriller, murder mystery, backstage drama, triangular romance.”✭✭✭✭

Get Fresh With Al Brown (TV One, 7.00)

The Secret Lives of Dancers (TV3, 4.00, R) Rehearsals step up another gear and tensions are heightened as the company prepares to leave on tour. ✫✫✫✫

Rheem Outdoors With Geoff (TV3, 5.00) More action from the Pukekohe Snapper Classic. ✫✫

Trade Zone Gone Fishin’ (TV3, 5.30)  A slice of outdoor New Zealand. ✫✫

Get Fresh With Al Brown (TV One, 7.00) Al finds inspiration at the Coroglen market and puts a Coromandel twist on a classic entree. He looks to the sea for a snapper main, and heads to the hills to gather figs and nuts for a stunning seasonal dessert. ✫✫✫✫

Hamish & Andy’s Gap Year (TV3, 7.30, F) The former Rove stars broadcast their gap year trip to America from a makeshift studio in a Brooklyn factory in front of a live audience. ✫✫

Movie: New in Town (TV3, 8.30, 5.1) Renee Zellweger and Harry Connick Jr headline this romantic-comedy about an ambitious Miami executive who meets the man of her dreams and begins reassessing her big-city values after accepting a temporary transfer to the middle of nowhere. (2009) ✫