The Bletchley Circle

Four women, Susan (Anna Maxwell Martin) Jean (Julie Graham), Millie (Rachel Stirling), and Lucy (Sophie Rundle), who previously worked at Bletchley, nine years later, pool their unique talents and resources to solve enigmas and save lives.

This is a period piece, mid 50s London, so they have the clothing and hairstyles of the time. They have to maintain the dialog of the time.

This sis a formula detective series with all the standard who-dun-it's and clues. What makes this series unique is that instead of the inspector and his sidekick, we have the for women civilians using their unique code-breaking skills picked up from working in Bletchley Park during the war, to do the same thing.

Even knowing it is only two seasons it is worth the purchase.

A revival attempt is made with The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco (2018).

A group of women who worked at Bletchley during the war return to their undervalued prewar existences until one of them happens upon a line of enquiry regarding a spate of murders of young women. She finds old colleagues from the Bletchley years and they form the eponymous circle to crack the code of the killings. Not believed and told to back down by all men in their lives and the authorities they fight alone to attempt to solve some pretty gruesome murders.

The writing is excellent and the portrayals by. Each of the four women leads is rounded, true and touching in their different ways. The only thing I would change is the over egged references to the murder being solved as a code: it was as if the writers felt it was a bit of a stretch and so had to 'explain' it all the time and thus made this one aspect a little clumsy and difficult to sustain suspension of disbelief.

A good look at the roles and struggles of women of the period but based on the murder mystery pace and style it is not preachy but accessible and exciting.

There have been plenty of hinted at back story lines and there is lots of room for growth and new story lines in a second series - she says with fingers crossed and a begging nod to The makers/funders

I like everything about this short series: the cast, the characters, the sets, the plots... everything.

Anyone who loves a good murder mystery will enjoy this series and the fabulous women with "detective skills". LOL (Set in WW2 and post-war England)

I'd recommend this series any time, that's why I gave it many stars.

During WWII, many women were vital to break the German codes at Bletchley Park. It's seven years after the war. Susan finds herself as a simple housewife and mother of two. Her days of life-and-death work is over. She starts noticing suspicious patterns with murders in the newspapers. Her husband humors her by going to the police but it's hard to be taken seriously. She recruits her fellow Bletchley workers. Millie is the outgoing one. Lucy is the youngest one with an abusive husband. Jean was their supervisor and now works as a librarian.

This is a fine British crime TV mysteries. The superior aspect is the cast and the characters. Bletchley Park is a great backstory. Susan a great character and her issues are compelling. The show could have overdosed with sexism but it is able to find a certain balance. Most of the men are dismissive but they aren't actually hostile. Timothy is a good example. He really loves Susan but he doesn't really know her history or the true extend of her skills. It's a great touch that he is constantly searching for hard puzzles for her. It's both loving but infantilizing. My constant issue is that the ladies are sometimes a little too cavalier with potential dangers. Susan's fears in the second season are well founded. I'm not sure why she gets written out for the last two episodes. All in all, I love the characters and the mysteries are fine.

The British really do period drama well. Often they choose strangely identifiable characters, which are played by highly competent actors. This show was much better than I expected. I really wondered how they were going to tie in code-breakers to a post-war world, and assumed it would be something to do with Russia. What a pleasant surprise to find these extraordinary women on the hunt for a serial killer. The science behind their quest was also extraordinary, and believe me, never suffers from the antiquated or mundane in terms of mind boggling genius in terms of their analytics. It's all very original indeed. The background is authentic 1950s and worth a look just for that. The social commentary was brilliant, though some may find it a little too extracurricular to the suspense of the main plot. The villain is good and evil, and I would have liked to have seen more of that, which is where my extra point disappeared. It would have given the story an extra kick to the suspense, which it needed, because a lot of the suspense was how husbands and other chaps would react to such aggressive role-breaking. It's a tiny criticism. This is truly a wonderful show. If you love excellent period piece BBC crime drama, then you are in for a treat when you discover The Bletchley Circle.