ITV will show a new period drama called The Bletchley Circle from Thursday 6th September at 9pm on ITV1. According to the Milton Keynes Citizen, the story “follows the lives of four fictional women whose brilliant work at Bletchley Park during WWII helped to smash codes used by the German military.”
Susan, Millie, Lucy and Jean are back living normal lives, but behind Susan’s conventional exterior as a 1950s housewife and mother is a steely determination that really shouldn’t be under-estimated.
The unresolved murders of Jane Hart and Patricia Oakes bring Susan’s detective skills to the fore once more, and armed with handwritten charts of numbers, dates and times, she spots a pattern of behaviour that no-one else has seen…
The Milton Keynes Citizen quotes Laura Mackie, part of the ITV Drama Commissioning team, saying “The Bletchley Circle combines a vivid portrait of post-war Britain with a taut and original codebreaking thriller”. Here’s a very short trailer for the show:
Source: More drama at Bletchley Park! – Milton Keynes Citizen.
More info: The Bletchley Circle on ITV.com
Gosh that’s a tenuous hook to hang a story off.
Also: she’s drawing with lipstick! Because she’s a woman! Thanks for the heads up, ITV!
Never review a programme you haven’t seen. But, yes, I’m not too hopeful.
Things I like:
something tangentially referring to Bletchley Park without being a one-off, dead serious documentary telling the same story as always;
‘Codebreaking’ – perhaps the spirit of;
women being shown having a role in the War;
possibly something about life at Bletchley Park (or maybe not, since it’s set afterwards – but maybe a flashback).
Things I’m not sure about:
the premise;
everything else.
But we’ll see. Well spotted on the lipstick though – I hadn’t noticed that!
Having watched the first episode I was fairly underwhelmed. The writing and the premise didn’t seem strong enough. It’s not in the league of the BBC’s Sherlock or the excellent film Zodiac both of which it falls in the shadows of.
We loved it-watched it for the first time and we were glued to it even though it was way beyond our bedtimes!!! Looking forward to the subsequent shows and we hope it does not get pulled from PBS because of another show. Thank you for the excellent acting performances and expert direction,