The Bletchley Circle (2012– )

In 1952, four women who worked at the wartime code-breaking center, Bletchley Park, reunite to track down a serial killer.

Stars:

Anna Maxwell Martin, Rachael Stirling, Julie Graham

Cast

Series cast summary:
Anna Maxwell Martin	...	Susan (3 episodes, 2012)
Rachael Stirling	...	Millie (3 episodes, 2012)
Julie Graham	...	Jean (3 episodes, 2012)
Sophie Rundle	...	Lucy (3 episodes, 2012)
Ed Birch	...	Harry (3 episodes, 2012)
Mark Dexter	...	Timothy (3 episodes, 2012)
Michael Gould	...	Deputy Commissioner Wainwright (3 episodes, 2012)
Elliot Kerley	...	Sam (3 episodes, 2012)
Jocelyn Macnab	...	Claire (3 episodes, 2012)
Steven Robertson	...	Crowley (3 episodes, 2012)
Kieran Bew	...	Clerk on Train (2 episodes, 2012)
Matthew Cullum	...	Constable Barry (2 episodes, 2012)
Anastasia Hille	...	Angela (2 episodes, 2012)
John Lightbody	...	Sergeant George (2 episodes, 2012)
Thomasin Rand	...	Mary (2 episodes, 2012)
Simon Williams	...	Cavendish (2 episodes, 2012)

Storyline

During WWII, men and women working at Bletchley Park played a vital role, breaking the codes used by the German military. Nine years later, former codebreaker Susan is a housewife and mother, but she continues to recognize patterns that surround her in everyday life. When a series of women are brutally murdered around London, Susan sees a pattern emerging. However, when a police-search for what Susan believes to be an overlooked victim turns up nothing, she realizes she cannot solve this puzzle alone. Enlisting three former Bletchley Park colleagues: Millie, Lucy, and Jean; Susan knows they have little time to break this code before the killer strikes again.

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Plot Keywords:

pattern | serial killer | code breaking | bombsite | period drama | 

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Genres:

Thriller

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

September 2012 (UK)

Also Known As:

Bletchley Circle

Filming Locations:

London, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

World Productions

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

User Reviews

Contrived, unsatisfying.

The genre of the amateur detective is old and shopworn. In the hands of the masters like Agatha Christie or Dorothy Sayers it can be brilliant, as long as we accept the formal quaint convention that a little old lady or an English lord might go around solving murders that baffle the police.

In Bletchley Circle instead of one amateur sleuth we get four: a committee of nerdy women who, having worked at code-breaking in WWII, now have not much to do and nothing to challenge their superior minds. In fact, almost the entire first episode is spent having one of the ladies trying to convince the other three to join the hunt for a vicious serial killer. But even the four together don't add up to one Miss Marple or Peter Whimsey. They're supposed to be super smart and great at putting together clues from reading newspapers and other evidence they collect, but at the same time they're clueless, bumbling and squeamish. One nearly gets herself raped trying to bait the killer and they commit various obvious offenses by contaminating crime scenes and stealing evidence. No wonder the police regard them with suspicion.

Though they uncover leads through careful analysis, how they arrive at their conclusions is summarized so quickly and sketchily that the audience has no idea how the pieces were put together. In detective fiction the reader (or viewer) is supposed to have some idea of the steps that lead to the solution of the case. In this we are just told the women are doing some heavy thinking and then come out with a result.

Another very annoying feature is the heavy feminist bias that muddies the plot. Not counting the killer, most all the men in this series are either fools or abusers. This is retro feminism from the 1980s superimposed on a postwar story. One girl's husband notices that she's absent from the home at odd hours and improbably accepts her strange behavior without explanation. Another woman's husband beats her up, a digression which adds to the theme that men are beasts and annoyingly delays the unfolding of the plot. Grotesque and creepy details of the killer's M.O. seemed purely gratuitous to me detracting from the excitement of the hunt. The mystery-thriller is an old standby and needs new elements to keep it fresh, but remember that gifted amateurs going around solving crimes is a literary convention that requires a willing suspension of disbelief.