WPC 56

The worst thing about this series is the highly irritating harmonica in the theme song and incidental music. It's at a high pitch and grates the nerves. Thank goodness for the "Skip Intro" button in BritBox. I had to skip past the incidental music within the show to avoid it as I couldn't bear it anymore. It's amazing how background music can ruin an entire series.

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.

Right off the bat, the show's premise presents several creative venues to pursue. You have a woman officer in a male dominant profession, allowing premise for critique of workplace sexism, assault, gender discrimination, and oppression. You can also tie with racial and socioeconomic issues and create a golden show.

This is where the first season starts, showing a lot of promise. But it quickly turns to cliches of personal relationships for the women officer. It is sad to see such a good premise being wasted in form of a one-dimensional character who is defined by her love life and the men in her life. The second season onward, this show is no different from any other gender-normative writing. I wish the writers rethink why they wanted to make the show in the first place. Personal lives are interesting, but it shouldn't define the character alone. Her ambitions, passions, inner struggles all could be explored, but weren't. Perhaps get more women writers and producers.

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.

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.