The Bletchley Circle
Are you watching The Bletchley Circle? I’m LOVING this show – in fact, my husband walked in the room when a commercial was playing for it, and he asked if they made it JUST FOR ME. 🙂 It’s a murder mystery thriller set in England during the early 1950’s, and centers around a group of women who worked together code breaking at Bletchley Park during WWII. 7 years after the war there’s a serial murderer attacking women in London, and the police are clueless where to start hunting. Unbeknownst to the police and behind their husbands’ backs, these 4 women work to find the murderer.
This won’t be a surprise to any of you, but I’ve got a thing for historical fiction. And I also love cozy* murder mystery stories. The thing is, I don’t love period shows and movies and books just because they’re set in the past — for example, I’m barely tolerating my way through Mr. Selfridge on Masterpiece right now (this show about the drama of shopping is kind of setting my teeth on edge). But The Bletchley Circle isn’t just surface drama, it digs deep into these women’s lives and roles in their post-war society and explores the issues without being melodramatic. These women are concerned about finding a killer, but *we’re* concerned about the lack of gender equality in their world.
The Bletchley Circle airs on PBS (on my station it’s 10pm after Masterpiece), or you can watch it online here. It looks like they’ve already taken down Episode One from the website, but I’m sure my enterprising readers can find a way to see it. Or knowing PBS, it will air again, and again, and again…
*a “cosy” mystery is a quaint mystery with an amateur detective solving the case. Miss Marple is the ultimate cosy heroine.