This was a quite brilliant idea for a TV series. The London Air Ambulance is exciting, sexy as hell and a fanastic setting for an ensemble cast drama.

Having worked with the London Air Ambulance, it would be very easy for me to critisise the technical elements of this drama. Some of whic are rather glaring (The LAA works in a team of one doctor and one paramedic...in this series we see only doctors)

Technically, the drama is an odd mix of extremely realistic medical procedures which were clearly researched in some detail, and then in the next seen we will see some glaringly obvious technical or procedural "that would/could never happen" type of error.

Then there is the drama itself: The episodes use a strange narrative technique of flashbacks, but we get to see the same flashbacks again, and again and again repeated throughout the episode.

The result is you find yourself screaming at the screen "COME ON! GET ON WITH IT!" as you watch a replay of the car accident for the 10th time.

This is sad, because actually the characters were reasonably engaging, and the series clearly had a big budget behind it. The costumes, locations and equipment are all great, and the special effects are of good quality.

A real shame, as I guess no one will again make a drama series about the London Air Ambulance, and its a real missed opportunity.

I confess that I bought The Golden Hour through Amazon UK because I'm a huge fan of Richard Armitage. The premise of the series also interested me. But I can see why this series was cut after four episodes, for three major reasons. First, the acting by the performers playing the four major roles is not very good (RA's performance is the best of the four but--and it pains me to say this--is still a bit wooden), and perhaps is influenced by the terrible dialogue. Second, the piecing of flashbacks of the victims' stories into the drama of the rescues, although promising, is done with too much repetition and melodrama and messes with the pace of the action. Finally, medical procedures during the rescue scenes were reduced to gratuitous and clumsy displays of gore. I don't think medical dramas should be bloodless but a glimpse here and there might more effectively add to the suspense instead of long panning shots.

I gave this series three stars because it showed promise in the later episodes and I liked the way it was maturing. The fourth and final episode was the most absorbing. There was more focus on the doctor-patient interactions and less on the doctor love triangle. The flashbacks were less jarring and a bit less melodramatic and the story of the pregnant woman and her family was moving. There were still lots or problems but also noticeable improvement.