The problem of thermal convection is investigated for a layer of fluid when the heat flux law of Cattaneo is adopted. The boundary conditions are those appropriate to two fixed surfaces. It is shown that for small Cattaneo number the critical Rayleigh number initially increases from its classical value of 1707.765 until a critical value of the Cattaneo number is reached. For Cattaneo numbers greater than this critical value a notable Hopf bifurcation is observed with convection occurring at lower Rayleigh numbers and by oscillatory rather than stationary convection. The aspect ratio of the convection cells likewise changes.