Vogue.com posted an interview with Romola about The Hour. Click the link for the full interview. Meanwhile, here is an excerpt:
How did you prepare?
The character I play is based on this real woman, Grace Wyndham Goldie, and there has been quite a lot written about her. Also, I got the chance to meet a couple of people who worked in British news television at the time.Once you started filming was there anything that shocked you about the period?
What was interesting was that television news media in Britain had strong censorship imposed on it. There was something called the 14-Day Rule, which meant that television news was not allowed to report on anything debated in the House of Commons until two weeks after it had happened. I had no idea that kind of censorship was in place.What attracted you to the role?
I really like shows that engage issues of gender, and I like playing strong female characters in positions of power because I don’t think you get to see that enough. Hopefully [Bel] is a likeable character. I think she is brave and funny and conflicted, but with self-assurance and ambition. Abi [Morgan, the show’s creator] is a really great writer, especially for women. I think she was interested in revealing that women had already been in the media for a very long time. In fact it started in the thirties with war journalists like Martha Gellhorn going to the Spanish Civil War.