An outspoken leading article in the Observer became central to an international drama as it played out on these shores 54 years ago. Now the same celebrated article, condemning British military involvement in Suez, is to be central to a BBC drama starring Romola Garai, Dominic West and Ben Whishaw.

On 4 November 1956, just as now, Egypt was convulsed by a political storm that gripped the attention of the world. In the summer, President Nasser had announced the nationalisation of the Suez canal, a crucial international waterway. And so began the Suez Crisis and the slide into an ill-fated British military action mounted jointly with France and Israel.

The Hour, a six-part series to be broadcast this summer, will follow the fortunes of three television news journalists as they cover the breaking story. Set in the same period as Mad Men, with the glamorous costumes of the era, the show invites comparison, but the commissioning team behind The Hour say their screenplay, written by Abi Morgan, is an attempt to show a moment of irreversible change in the modern world.

In a key episode, Whishaw's character, a young television journalist, gets hold of the Observer article before the newspaper has gone to print and uses it to spur his colleagues into running a controversial news report. His boss, played by Garai, is keen to follow the Observer's lead, but West, as the news programme's anchor man, has doubts. Whishaw's character asks him: "Why should we be gagged when the newspapers can print what they like?"

At the time, the Observer was strongly criticised for running the leader, a decision taken by editor David Astor and executed by the barrister and former Liberal MP Dingle Foot. Astor's risky move was prompted by the embarkation of a British invasion force from Cyprus.

"We wish to make an apology," the leader ran. "Five weeks ago we remarked that, though we knew our government would not make a military attack in defiance of its solemn international obligations, people abroad might think otherwise. The events of the past weeks have proved us wrong. We had not believed our government was capable of such folly and crookedness." The last line was the editor's own addition.

While the newspaper's circulation did not fall away, Observer staff were accused of treachery and lack of patriotism and advertising contracts were cancelled. Four of the paper's trustees resigned within a fortnight. Only the Guardian, at that time not connected to the Observer, carried similarly contentious, critical reports on the war. These reports were written by correspondent James Morris, later to become the travel writer Jan Morris.

"It is a proud memory for me because we were right. I had been in the Middle East for a long time and made a decision to write for the Guardian because I did not believe in the war," said Morris this weekend. "I was very much in the thick of it, so it only came home to me later that the pieces I had written, particularly about secret French involvement in the Israeli action, had such a big impact and were a sort of turning point in national opinion."

Morris's front-page report in the Guardian on 20 November revealed that French pilots had joined the Israeli attack on Egypt. His later reports also revealed the French had been responsible for napalm attacks on Egyptian war vehicles in the desert. The allies attained their initial military objectives, but pressure from the international community forced a withdrawal. Britain and France did not gain control of the canal.

The drama, which has a strong supporting cast, including Tim Pigott-Smith, Juliet Stevenson, Anton Lesser, Anna Chancellor and Julian Rhind-Tutt, is being filmed in north London.

"The Hour signals the confident new direction that BBC2 drama is taking," said the BBC's head of drama, Ben Stephenson, this weekend. "Viewers will witness the decade at its most exciting – from the ruthless sexual politics behind the polite social facade to the revelations that redefined the world for a new generation."