Hacks (2012)

Once the tea girl Kate Loy is now the ruthless editor of scurrilous red top the Sunday Comet,owned by greedy Australian media magnate Stanhope Feast. The paper will stop at nothing for its ... See full summary »

Director:

Guy Jenkin

Writer:

Guy Jenkin

Stars:

Michael Kitchen, Claire Foy, Philip Davis

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Michael Kitchen	...	Stanhope Feast
Claire Foy	...	Kate Loy
Philip Davis	...	Ray (as Phil Davis)
Alexander Armstrong	...	David Bullingdon
Kayvan Novak	...	Rav
John Hopkins	...	Connor Feast
Celia Imrie	...	Tabby
Nigel Planer	...	Oliver
Abdul Salis	...	Micah Todd
Russ Abbot	...	Bill Bentley
Lisa Greenwood	...	Zoe
Eleanor Matsuura	...	Ho Chi Mao Feast
Stella Gonet	...	Sandra Bryant MP
Moray Hunter	...	Detective Superintendent
Gordon Kennedy	...	Gordon Grey

Storyline

Once the tea girl Kate Loy is now the ruthless editor of scurrilous red top the Sunday Comet,owned by greedy Australian media magnate Stanhope Feast. The paper will stop at nothing for its grubby scoops including hacking into newsworthy people's phones though Kate gets off the hook following an early accusation by helping the police wire-tap criminals. Feast and his wife and son Connor arrive in England to offer the prime minister media support in exchange for an exclusive television deal but by now the claims of hacking will not go away and Kate and the Feasts are summoned to a commons commission. This leads to Connor selling out his father,Kate resigning and the paper closing though Kate and old time reporter Ray have one last edition to print as an act of revenge. An end title explains the fates of the protagonists,many of whom ended up in prison.

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Genres:

Comedy

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Details

Official Sites:

Channel 4 [United Kingdom]

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 January 2012 (UK)

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Goofs

(at around 1 min) When Oliver is talking to Kate, after she changed her shoes and flipped the cabinet, a mirror reveals the camera and the camera operator standing behind Oliver.

User Reviews

Disappointingly unoriginal and not that funny

If you have followed the phone-hacking saga and the demise of NOTW then you will be familiar with the territory of this film. Now satire is not a genre that always results in belly-laughs, but this was a touch disappointing as humour and the satire lacked the incisiveness of real exponents of the genre; it tended to follow predictable story-lines and the acting lacked the 'edge' of a series like 'The Thick of It'. Michael Kitchen plays his relatively small part well and what a contrast from his role as Inspector Foyle - it demonstrates the skill of the actor and must have been fun for him as a role. But fans of Kitchen's Foyle will probably be disappointed; they should not expect this to be a reprise of his mastery of that wise, self-controlled and precisely nuanced character.