Television Review: The Bletchley Circle

I was drawn to this series initially by the calibre of the cast. It stars Anna Maxwell Martin (who I adored in South Riding and The Night Watch), Rachael Stirling (Tipping the Velvet, enough said) and Julie Graham alongside a relative newcomer, Sophie Rundle. The four play women who worked at Bletchley Park during WWII but by 1952 they are leading mundane lives. That is until Susan (Martin) begins tracking the progress of a serial killer working his way around London (she has a collection of newspaper clippings tacked to the back of her bedroom mirror so that her husband doesn't find out). She spots a pattern in the killings and takes it to the police but, of course, they laugh her off. She feels she has no option to recruit the other girls for their various skills - Millie (Stirling), Jean (Graham) and Lucy (Rundle).

There are numerous twists in this one. Although we do catch sight of the killer 'at work', these moments mainly serve to heighten concern for the protagonists. They are four very clever women but they keep finding themselves stonewalled. When they finally do get the police to listen to them it becomes apparent that this may be bigger than any of them imagined.

The cast really were superb, though they were assisted by exceptional writing and wonderful period detail. The subject dictates that the drama should be dark and atmospheric and it succeeds. It offers a fresh twist on the period murder mysteries by introducing these four amateurs, all with different personalities and experiences since the end of the war. Intermingled with the suspense are snapshots of their lives - Millie quits her job in order to focus on the investigation while Lucy battles with her abusive husband. Susan, meanwhile, is pushing her own husband to his limits by refusing to tell him what's going on.

The Bletchley Circle succeeds on several levels, providing a tightly-plotted and compelling mystery drama that isn't a carbon copy of other programmes. I think it has potential to be a real hit and I hope that ITV have the courage to recommission it.

Book Review: South Riding by Winifred Holtby

I decided to buy this book after watching the BBC adaptation staring Anna Maxwell Martin. Although I loved the adaptation, I had hopes that the book would be better. I was right.

In his introduction to my copy, Andrew Davies compares Winifred Holtby to George Eliot in terms of her scope. This was something that couldn't come across in the television series because of time restrictions. However, the sheer number of characters Holtby manages to portray in her novel is impressive. She shows all sides of humanity from the lower rungs of the Holly family up to Robert Carne of Maythorpe and everything in between. The catalyst for the novel South Riding is Sarah Burton, a young and somewhat idealistic yet firm headteacher, taking over the local girls high school. She encounters problems in the school itself and with the wider community, including Robert Carne himself. Carne is completely at odds with Sarah's view of the world, yet she finds herself falling in love with him as he faces financial ruin.

Going to the book with pictures in my head of the characters from the adaptation certainly made reading this an enjoyable experience. However, the book also added plausibility to the characters. Sarah's turmoil in relation to Carne is raw in the novel and something little more than hinted at in the adaptation. Carne himself came across as a very worthy and honest man, if a little inarticulate and stern. Mrs Beddows was by far my favourite character in both book and adaptation. This probably has something to do with her excellent portrayal by Penelope Wilton but it also has a lot to do with the layers of the character. She loves Carne deeply, she's dissatisfied with her family, she wants to do what she can for the community. She is a female face on the county council and by far the most energetic of the council members portrayed. Councillor Huggins, merely a hypocrite and a fool in the adaptation, has more to him than that and the belief in God and himself he extols throughout make his actions believable. There is one beautiful scene in the book which I don't think was covered in the series (please correct me if I'm wrong): Huggins labouring to the top of a cliff to see Carne at Maythorpe. If it was shown on screen then the image in my head conjured by Holtby's excellent description has surpassed it.

All of her characters are well-sketched and events follow a logical pattern. One thing I found tiresome was the rather long epilogue and the sections prior to that which seemed long-winded. I did appreciate the different ending to the adaptation as it was much less melodramatic and suited the characters. However, I feel as though the ending lingered a little too long, as though Holtby had difficulty letting go of the characters - as I myself did, to be fair.

Holtby wrote three other novels before her death at the age of 37. I certainly plan to read more of her work.

Television Review: The Night Watch

I love Sarah Waters. I've watched the adaptations of Tipping the Velvet, Fingersmith and Affinity and enjoyed them all. In the case of Affinity I think I preferred the adaptation to the book. However, The Night Watch struck me as a completely different animal. How do you dramatise a book that begins at the end and works backwards? Thankfully, the concept worked better than I thought it would on screen and a good story was backed up by some outstanding performances.

Credit has to go to Paula Milne for a terrific script and to director Richard Laxton. They brought a difficult novel to life and the bomb scenes in particular were haunting. The barest dialogue in those was enough. Of course, an excellent script and direction only count if you've got a great cast and The Night Watch certainly had that.

Anna Maxwell-Martin was known to me for her recent role in South Riding. I have to say, I wasn't sure she was right for the role of ambulance driver Kay but she fit the part very well. I couldn't warm to her immediately but - as with most characters - as we moved backwards I understood her more. It's difficult to pick my favourite Kay scene but her breaking down in the rubble when she thought her beloved Helen was dead was painful to watch - along with what happened directly after that.

Claire Foy as Helen did very well with a character whose motivations aren't as clear-cut as those of other characters. Equally, Anna Wilson-Jones as Julia was alluring, manipulative and guarded - sometimes all in the same scene. As for Jodie Whittaker playing Viv...well, I think I've found one of my favourite actresses for years to come. She was by far my favourite character in the adaptation when I felt indifferent to her during the novel at times. Harry Treadway as Duncan, Viv's brother, was something of a revelation to me since I wasn't expecting to like him. Duncan's a pretty complex character but, to my surprise, the layers were there without the necessary explanation. I particularly liked the prison scenes, especially when he started crying in the visiting room. That was another of those haunting scenes this adaptation did so well.

I could list almost every scene if I began talking about the ones I liked but I'll settle for a select few: Julia and Helen's conversation in the rain; Viv's first encounter with Reggie on the train; Kay's decision to lie for Viv as they travelled to hospital; the bombs falling on the prison... Honestly, the list goes on and on.

As with the book, you really need to watch this again to get the full effect of it. Did I like it? Yes. More than the book? No. But I think that's true of most adaptations. It certainly stands on its own feet though.