WPC 56

There are some real Drama gems hidden away on daytime TV and WPC56 is certainly one of them. Why it's not on (or at least repeated) at a later time I'll never know.

Well written and performed it tracks the career of one of the first female police officers back in the 50's.

The show certainly looks the part in terms of set and costumes and the one a day style of episode screening only makes the cliffhangers that little bit more gripping.

Maybe in their wisdom the BBC will recommission the show for a third series or even better show it in an early evening slot. It would not look out of place against some of the other,bigger name Dramas.

The beautiful Jennie Jacques plays the lead role of WPC Gina Dawson. Although the series revolves around her there are many intelligently woven threads in the plot that give all the other players a good chunk of airtime, too. None of them disappoint, either. Things wind up nicely after five episodes but there's still a little wriggle room for another series and I, for one, hope that their is.

After all the time and trouble that the producers, cast and crew went to, to get this right I'm surprised that this was aired just after lunch during the week where probably not many people got the chance to see it. That was an extremely irresponsible decision by the faceless suits at the beeb who think they know something about television.

The story is well paced and intelligently laid out. The details, language and props were first rate and appropriate. The cast, photography and script were also all top notch. This is intelligent television drama... something the Americans are becoming good at and which we Brits have rather lost our way on.

Much, much better than that dreadful garbage, Prime suspect.

Jennie Jacques portrays all the ambitions, fears & acceptances of young women in 1956 England. I let myself go when watching the case solving, but I forget the plot when the camera is focused on her. I literally have to shake my head at times to follow the story.

I really like the scenes where she's not on camera. But from the first 5 minutes of episode one, she's the portrayed character I want to see next.

Not her fault, but Jennie Jacques' eyes are too magnetic. That said, the little known supporting cast are drawn from the deep well of British acting talent. This was Britain in 1956.

That I found Jennie Jacques' beauty distracting should not deter others from giving this a first viewing. She did what the writers & director dictated, & her performance is worthy of high praise.

I mark this down because of formulaic writing, but I mark it up because of the ensemble performances.

This is series worthy of watching.

The negative of the show is that much of it is predictable. The powerful men have to act macho and the woman is not respected as an equal. The woman has much better instincts as a copper than the men who've been on the police force for years. The worst of the coppers is, predictably, almost a 2-dimensional character, at least through the 2 seasons I've seen so far.

The positives include that there are some sensitive male characters who give Gina a chance. The supporting cast is excellent. The plots are interesting and appropriate to the times. And the attention to detail (sexism, racism, brutality, repressed sexuality, clothing, sets, hair styles, makeup, music, dialog) makes me almost believe it really is 1956 on the set.

Having lived through the 1950s (age 11 in 1956) I can attest that much of what we see on this show was very much like this. In many work places women were considered to be either eye-candy or efficient old maids who had no life outside of their employment, This continued well into the 60s until the women's movement had some clout. It would have been even more so for Gina who would have been about 10 years older than I was in 1956.

Gina's character has to be independent enough to take on a nontraditional job, tough enough to be a cop, yet still have a sensitive side. I think Jennie Jacques manages to pull it off well.

Just as you're settling in to a series the BBC pull the plug, no reason given, no apology to the legions of fans who loved the show.

They have done it many times over the years, sometimes leaving you in suspense as to what happened next with a cliff hanger. There was a thread not tied up at the end of this serious with the obnoxious. Ass chief constable, I would have liked to see what happened to him.

This joins the likes of Survivors (2008), Tripods, Home Fires and Invasion Earth. The BBC are funded by us but never listen to what we have to say. Dr Who a case in point.

It's been gone too long now to bring it back, which is a shame.