Enquêtes codées

Great period drama....quite extraordinary how these women went from code breakers in WWII saving thousands of lives to the hum-drum of home life after the war. I can only imagine how difficult the transition must have been. Anna Maxwell Martin, who plays Susan, does such a great job. I had no idea how fantastic she was--very believable and her passion is deeply portrayed here. This show is enigmatic---quite refreshing. Great actors and very interesting..I couldn't stop watching--I found this by accident and was truly impressed with the production quality. If you like this...watch "Call the Midwives"--another great British show.

This was a sparkling, well thought out, murder mystery. It dealt with the part of World War II that we seldom get to see on the screen. These four women had developed their minds to nearly super-human levels, only to let them rust in the decades following the war. This drama is set in that curious after-time. It's a time when hands that had once killed and maimed had to be placed in a domestic setting. Both the protagonists and villain were all products of that curious time. They captured the sense of mid- 50's London exquisitely. The piece was well cast, well filmed and well acted. I hope that we get to see more of the amazing women of Beltchley!

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.

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

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.