THE BLETCHLEY CIRCLE
Written by Guy Burt
Produced by Jake Lushington
Directed by Andy De Emmony
Executive Produced by Simon Heath
PRODUCTION NOTES
***The information contained herein is strictly embargoed from all press
use, non-commercial publication, or syndication until
Wednesday 29th August 2012***
Introduction ........................................................................................ Page 3
The characters ................................................................................... Page 5
Interview with producer Jake Lushington ....................................... Page 6
Interview with writer Guy Burt .......................................................... Page 9
Interview with costume designer Anna Robbins ............................ Page 12
Anna Maxwell Martin is Susan .......................................................... Page 14
Rachael Stirling is Millie .................................................................... Page 17
Sophie Rundle is Lucy ...................................................................... Page 20
Julie Graham is Jean ......................................................................... Page 23
Episode synopses ............................................................................. Page 26
Cast list ............................................................................................... Page 32
Production credits ............................................................................. Page 33
ITV PRESS OFFICE
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The Bletchley Circle
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INTRODUCTION
“He’s making a pattern and he doesn’t realise he’s doing it. If we can crack it
we’ll be able to see what his next move will be. Just like knowing where the
German army will be in three day’s time. We can get ahead of him and stop
him before he kills again.”
Four ordinary women with an extraordinary flair for code-breaking and razor-sharp
intelligence skills are the focus of ITV’s new murder mystery drama, The Bletchley
Circle.
Twice BAFTA award-winner, Anna Maxwell Martin (Accused, South Riding, Bleak
House) stars as Susan, Rachael Stirling (Women in Love, Boy Meets Girl, Tipping
the Velvet) is Millie, RADA graduate Sophie Rundle (Episodes, Garrow’s Law) plays
Lucy and Julie Graham (Lapland, Survivors, William and Mary) is Jean.
Three x 60-minute episodes have been commissioned from World Productions
(United, Line of Duty) based on the lives of four fictional women whose brilliant work
at top security HQ Bletchley Park during World War II helped break codes used by
the German military.
Set in 1952, Susan, Millie, Lucy and Jean have returned to their normal lives,
modestly setting aside the part they played in producing crucial intelligence, which
helped the Allies to victory and shortened the war.
Behind Susan’s conventional exterior as a 1950’s housewife and mother, there’s a
steely determination you under-estimate at your peril.
Seemingly unadventurous and conservative on the surface, our unlikely heroine is a
force to be reckoned with. She just hasn’t done anything about it for the last 9 years!
Until now that is…and the unresolved murders of Jane Hart and Patricia Oakes. With
her handwritten charts of numbers, dates and times and stretched lines of wool
connecting pins to clips, Susan has spotted a pattern of behaviour no-one else has…
Susan goes to the police only to be met with utter skepticism by the desk sergeant.
Unaware of her Bletchley background, the police refuse to take Susan’s theory
seriously. She quickly realises she can only begin to crack the murders and bring the
culprit to justice with her former friends.
Bohemian Millie, speaker of fourteen languages and a streetwise approach to life,
Lucy who’s youthful, naïve exterior masks a brilliant memory for data recall and Jean,
the methodical no-nonsense organiser with valuable access to key records and
documents.
Produced by Jake Lushington (The Devil’s Whore, Mysterious Creatures), and
directed by Andy De Emmony (Cutting It, Kenneth Williams: Fantabulosa!) The
Bletchley Circle is a taut thriller created and written by Guy Burt (Kingdom, The
Borgias). Simon Heath (Hancock and Joan, Party Animals) is the Executive
Producer.
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“The Bletchley Circle is about what might have been,” says Jake. “Despite the era
they were in, women like Susan and Millie had the capacity, the ideas and the ability
to process evidence and crack a murder case. In many ways it is a form of police
profiling which was way ahead of it’s time,” he added.
The Bletchley Circle has been commissioned for ITV by Drama Commissioning
team, Laura Mackie and Sally Haynes.
“The Bletchley Circle combines a vivid portrait of post-war Britain with a taut and
original code-breaking thriller.” said Laura. “I’m delighted that we’ve attracted such a
strong cast to bring it to life”
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THE CHARACTERS
SUSAN played by Anna Maxwell Martin
Married to Timothy and has two small children, her husband doesn’t know about her
past as a code-breaker at Bletchley Park. She is the driving force behind getting the
group of girls back together from Bletchley in an attempt to solve the run of murders
that have been occurring. Strong and intelligent, Susan is conflicted between
following her instincts and helping solve the crimes while trying her best to be a good
wife and mother.
MILLIE played by Rachael Stirling
She is a ballsy, feisty character with an aristocratic background. Millie didn’t marry
after Bletchley but travelled the world instead. Best friend of Susan’s but estranged.
Her street-wise knowledge contrasts with the experience of the other women. In all
senses Millie is the most modern and independent of the characters. She is a brilliant
linguist and cartographer.
LUCY played by Sophie Rundle
Lucy is the youngest, from a lower class background than the rest of the women and
married to an abusive and controlling man. With a formidable photographic memory,
Lucy’s skills are vital, although she is younger, more naive and the most vulnerable
of them all. She is determined to help solve the crimes and even puts herself in
danger to do so.
JEAN played by Julie Graham
She is the eldest of the four women and was in charge of the girls at Bletchley Park.
She has the demeanor of a stern sergeant major but moral and committed at the
same time. Now a librarian, she is exceptional at administration and digging into
records to track down a murderer. She is resolutely single.
TIMOTHY played by Mark Dexter
Unaware of his wife's talents, Timothy is a nice and supportive husband who loves
his wife and family. A man of his time, he expects his wife to look after the children
and their home. A minor civil servant, Timothy struggles with the increasingly
headstrong and unexplained behaviour of his wife. Timothy fought in the Royal
Artillery in World War II and nearly lost his life but managed to escape although his
leg was badly injured.
CAVENDISH played by Simon Williams
He is stern and particular. A now retired ‘spook’, he ran the disinformation
department during the war. He eventually agrees to help Susan, even at the cost of
his own life.
DEPUTY COMMISSIONER WAINWRIGHT played by Michael Gould
Deputy Commissioner Wainwright is heading up the investigation into the murdered
girls. He takes Susan seriously when others in his position may not, but still
underestimates what she and the rest of the women are capable of.
ANGELA played by Anastasia Hille
Knows Jean from the war and also worked for a brief time at Electra House. She’s
not as straight-laced as she seems.
HARRY played by Ed Birch
Married to Lucy, he is an obnoxious man who puts his wife in her place, often by
beating her up. He is unaware of his wife’s background at Bletchley Park or her
particular skills.
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5
INTERVIEW WITH PRODUCER JAKE LUSHINGTON
Jake Lushington did not hesitate when he first heard about The Bletchley Circle.
“The writer Guy Burt and I were talking about a few other things and then he told me
about this idea and I commissioned it on the spot,” recalls Jake. “I thought it was a
brilliant premise for a drama and something I’d never seen before.
“What if a group of women from Bletchley Park had got back together after one of
them spots a pattern in a series of murders in the 1950s?”
The filming included a day at the real Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire where
British code-breakers worked in total secrecy during World War Two.
“It’s a very small part of the drama but they gave us some of their historic machines
to feature in the scenes shot at Bletchley Park”, added Jake.
Intelligence achievements at Bletchley included breaking German cyphers used for
transmitting messages and produced information later said to have shortened the
war by between two and four years. As the drama highlights, in one example it
enabled Britain and her allies to know where the Germany Army would be in three
days’ time.
Susan (Anna Maxwell Martin), Millie (Rachael Stirling), Lucy (Sophie Rundle) and
Jean (Julie Graham) are first seen carrying out vital code-breaking roles at Bletchley
Park in 1943 before the drama moves on to London in 1952.
“They were very bright women working in a time when they were valued. But when
the war was over they were put back in their box,” explains Jake.
“People at Bletchley Park had signed the Official Secrets Act and could not tell
anyone what they had done - not even their husbands.
“There were a lot of secrets back then. Husbands and wives didn’t tell each other
everything. The idea of emotional honesty in relationships is something that only
really hit in the late Sixties and Seventies.
“It was a male world in the 1950s. Men were working and a lot of women weren’t. So
they were very separated.
“We’ve seen it from the male side, of men lying to their wives. And yet we’re more
shocked by women lying to their men? We’re all living in a little bit of a dream world
there. That’s what’s good about this. We see things in a completely different way.
“This is a fictional celebration of the women from Bletchley Park as they reunite in the
1950s and use their skills to try and catch a killer. They can help in a way that other
people, including the police, can’t.”
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Susan is compelled to act when she detects a pattern in a series of chilling murders
of young women.
“Essentially what they were asked to do in the war was look at code and at repetition
of incident and try to decipher that. In other words trying to decipher information that
was deliberately being covered up.
“A murderer is also trying to cover their tracks. So Susan and these women look at
evidence and find an unconscious pattern that might give a killer away. And if you
can find that then you can predict behaviour.
“It’s not like Sherlock Holmes where it’s all about an observation of a tiny thing that
gives you the clue. These women don’t work off just one piece of information. They
work with lots of data, put it in a row and go, ‘What does that tell us?’
“That’s what computers do today. Google does that every day with your shopping or
website preferences and then forms a profile of you. That’s what these women were
doing then. That’s definitely ahead of its time and yet now an everyday part of life.”
Susan takes her initial theory to the police but is met with a mixed response.
“Policemen were a combination of very old fashioned and not very coordinated back
then. Some at the top were starting to look at psychological profiling and analysing
evidence in a different way. But it would take a while to come to fruition.
“Nothing really changed until the Yorkshire Ripper case when people realised we had
to have centralised records across the country.
“Before that people could move and never get caught. Back in the 1950s people
really could evade detection.”
Jake hopes viewers will be intrigued by the four women who make up The Bletchley
Circle.
“A lot of them came from university where their skills were spotted. Lucy has got a
very particular skill, with a photographic memory, which would have even been
picked up at school. And that would have been registered.
“Susan would have done mathematics at Oxford, Cambridge, Exeter or Durham. But
they also interviewed women who could do the Daily Telegraph crossword. So quite
odd ways of recruitment.”
He adds: “There’s no romantic interest in our drama. Some of them are married,
some of them are not. And Susan is having to balance looking after children with
solving a very complex crime. So it’s very familiar and yet quite unfamiliar at the
same time.
“Today, if women had made that much of an impact during a major war, we wouldn’t
say, ‘Thank you very much. You can go to suburbia now.’ We’d go, ‘What can you do
next for us?’
“And that’s not in any way to say that they didn’t have fulfilling and wonderful lives
having children or any of those things. But some would have liked a choice.
“Susan’s view is, ‘Why shouldn’t we be useful if we’ve got these brains? We can help
in a way that other people can’t see.’ It’s about a wasted resource as much as it’s
about saving people’s lives.”
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7
Other locations used in the series included the site of the former Battersea Power
Station, the Bluebell Railway in Sussex and the Royal Courts of Justice in The
Strand.
How difficult is it in 2012 to make a drama mainly set in 1950s’ post-war London?
“It gets harder and harder in terms of the exterior scenes. So you’ve got to go to the
institutions that almost on principle don’t change - like Town Halls, Royal Courts of
Justice, Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Or the Bluebell Railway, which is a tourist attraction for
its preservation of history.
“You have to pick and choose and jump around a lot to find things you want. We’ve
also used St Pancras station because part of our story is set there. Fortunately
they’ve restored the exterior perfectly but the interior had got the Eurostar in it. So
we’re having to do some clever things with CGI.”
The interior of Susan’s home was filmed in a real south London house which had
been kept in 1950s’ style, including period furniture, by its owner.
“The woman who kept it loves that period. There were a few windows which we had
to re-cover. But about 80 per cent of it was fine. Funnily enough, the only trouble was
that it was a bit too sparkly and this is set in an age of austerity. So we had to dirty
down her pristine 1950s’ house.”
Authentic locations and backdrops all help but Jake maintains: “It’s the drama that
you need to believe. This is about a group of friends, their relationship and
investigations.
“The ambition is to surprise the audience and keep them wondering what’s going to
happen next. I think this is a fresh, exciting, thrilling and gripping story.”
Jake’s credits include: The Devil’s Whore; Inspector George Gently; Black Cab;
Mysterious Creatures.
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8
INTERVIEW WITH WRITER GUY BURT
“I’m a bit of a computer geek in secret,” reveals writer Guy Burt. “So I’m very
interested by the early days of computing and obviously what Alan Turing did at
Bletchley Park was extraordinary.
“But in reading up on that I found out about all the women who worked there. And I
read accounts of what it was like – particularly intensive intellectual activity and
secrecy.
“Then after the war you had to keep that entirely to yourself. Several of the accounts
had only been written once husbands or families had died because the women
concerned didn’t want to write the story and reveal that for 40 years they had been
keeping a secret.”
Where did the idea for The Bletchley Circle spring from?
“It was very largely to do with thinking about what it must have been like to be a
woman back in the Fifties. I’m also always interested in outsiders and people who are
marginalised.
“It struck me that if you’d been given such an extraordinary sense of purpose and
been using your mind so intensely during the war years, it must have been very
strange indeed to then have to go back and be a normal housewife again.
“I think I would have felt bored in the Fifties. These women did something
extraordinary for five years and then found themselves in a decade of austerity and a
rigid return to old fashioned values.”
The four women at the heart of the drama reunite in 1952 but cannot let others know
of their extraordinary past.
“You had to keep the secret of what you had been doing and not tell anyone, which
must have been really strange.
“People took vows of secrecy and promises with great seriousness. Nowadays we’re
very much more relaxed about what we consider to be our duty in these sorts of
circumstances and can be very sceptical. If the government asks us to keep a secret
our instinctive reaction is one of suspicion.”
Women took the place of men on the home front during the Second World War.
“With most of the men off fighting, women did run the country. They ran the trains,
they worked in factories, tilled the land and most of the jobs that the men had done.
“It’s probably true that quite a lot of women were very happy to go back to family and
domestic life after the war. If you’re working in a munitions factory, it’s not very
pleasant or empowering. Going home after that would have been a relief.
“But for some women the war gave them a glimpse into a different world where
suddenly you were given this purpose and responsibility, only to then have it taken
away. Some people who worked at Bletchley went on to have academic careers or
whatever. But most of them didn’t.”
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Most of the drama is set in 1952, seven years after the end of World War Two, when
Britain was a very different place to today.
“It was a strange time. As well as the deprivation that comes after the war and the
austerity, it was quite a closed society in some senses. And you’ve got the looming,
developing menace of the Cold War as well.
“The story is very much to do with struggling against an entire society, set of systems
and values, that expects you to be one thing when you know you could be something
else. How do you respond when the police don’t listen and society expects you to
stay at home and look after your children?
“Today we’re very comfortable with the idea of women saying, ‘I want a family, I want
children, but I also want to have a career and an intellectually stimulating life.’ That
was simply not an option that seemed to be available to the women in this drama.
“Because Susan is very good at patterns and pattern-based recognition, it seemed to
me that it would follow naturally that her approach to looking at a murder case would
be to look for patterns.
“And that’s something that simply wasn’t being done in the Fifties. It’s the kind of
pattern analysis that was done at with the CIA at Langley in the Seventies.”
Susan (Anna Maxwell Martin), Millie (Rachael Stirling), Lucy (Sophie Rundle) and
Jean (Julie Graham) bring different individual skills to the hunt for a killer.
“They haven’t got a text book for how you go about profiling a case like this. They are
having to almost invent the methodology as they go along. So they’re going on their
training, instincts and the skills they learned in the war and trying to apply them.
“Susan spots the pattern to begin with. Obviously she cares about the victims but
this, for her, is very largely an opportunity to have some focus, excitement and
purpose in her life again, which has been missing.
“Millie’s initial reason for getting into this is excitement and adventure. Those are the
things that have always driven her. She’s the character who has travelled abroad
after the war and we sense very strongly that she wishes Susan had come with her.
So there’s a disappointment that exists between those two.
“Jean, who is the oldest character, is the one with the strongest moral compass. For
her the decision to join up again with the group comes ultimately from a moral
imperative that they might save lives.
“And then finally there’s Lucy, who is very young with an unhappy home life. She is
simply so glad to see her friends again. She didn’t realise how much she would miss
them after the war.
“Lucy has a photographic memory, so she can act as a kind of database of facts and
information. Which works fine up to a point. But she’s the one most haunted by what
they discover because she can’t erase the memory. She remembers every tiny
instant of that. And that’s very upsetting for her.
“So they’ve got very different sets of reasons for going into this investigation and
gradually it becomes hugely distressing and impacting. It’s no longer fun or a
diversion. That’s the point where they all question what they’re in it for and whether
they should be doing this.”
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Guy says the drama highlights how far women have come since the 1950s.
“It also nudges us to realise that we haven’t completely stopped the journey yet. That
there’s still quite a long way to go before we’re an equal society and everything is
equally available to all.”
He recalls the first day he went on set to watch filming.
“At first I was watching in another room on a monitor and wondered if they’d put
some kind of sepia filter on the camera lens or something. It just looked like the
Fifties with all the furnishings, wallpaper and costumes. We had a great art
department along with costume and make up.”
Guy was also on location when the production filmed at Bletchley Park.
“I took some snaps for my scrapbook. It was absolutely fascinating to film in the real
huts. There’s just something really special about being in the actual place rather than
on a film set somewhere.
“The staff at Bletchley were amazing. They let us have some of the Enigma
machines and some of the decoding machines. And they themselves dressed up and
got into costume and came an operated them and were filmed doing it. It was just
magical.”
As well as his writing credits, Guy has another claim to fame from the time when he
was a teacher.
“I was Prince William’s first English teacher at Eton in my second or third year of
teaching there. That was my first teaching job. It was a long time ago,” he laughs.
Guy’s credits include: The Borgias; Kingdom; Wire In The Blood.
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INTERVIEW WITH COSTUME DESIGNER
ANNA ROBBINS
Anna Robbins was concerned with patterns of a different kind when it came to finding
the right look for four former code-breakers hunting a killer.
“You’ve got these four beautiful women, who are really strong characters, and I
wanted every single composition within their wardrobes to sit well together.
“We want it to be historically accurate and have minimised floral textiles and patterns
to give it a much more austere 1950s’ post-war feel.
“But I still wanted to have graphic prints and regimented patterns to connect into the
code-breaking and the fact that there are all these patterns within.
“In terms of costumes I’ve looked at the late Forties and into the Fifties, more than
the new look that arrived in the early Fifties, so it doesn’t have a sense of being too
optimistic, opulent or luxurious fashion-wise. Rationing was still going on and this
filters through to the shapes of the clothing.”
Adds Anna: “Women wouldn’t have many outfits at this time, so we’ve got a capsule
wardrobe. So you’ll see things worn a couple of times at least but in different
combinations so that it’s realistic.
“Millie has two coats because there’s an aristocratic hangover where she probably
had more bits and pieces which she picked up travelling. But Susan has one coat
and a separate little jacket which is her Sunday best.
“Jean has perhaps the most contained wardrobe. She’s got two suits and five
blouses. We very rarely see her without her suit jacket. She’s a really contained,
organised woman in how she dresses.”
Anna picked up some of the costumes at a monthly sale of vintage clothing in west
London.
“There’s some really beautiful authentic clothing with definitely more work done on
them that there would be in, say, a modern blouse of today, with incredible patterncutting techniques.
“One of the women’s suits, from the late 1940s, was also bought at the fair. It gives
you a real high because you’ve got the character’s measurements and a specific idea
of what you want and then when you find it on a rail it all falls into place.
“When you’ve got women dressed as they would have been in the early Fifties, they
would have been wearing suspenders and stockings and nylons, which actually
comes across as being pretty glamorous and dressed up to how we are now, with
relaxed, comfortable clothing.
“Also you have to realise that people don’t change that much. They’ll create their
style in their early twenties and it kind of stays. The generation carries the style
through. So when you’ve got twinsets and pearls on a grandmother in this century,
they will have been wearing that as a glamorous twentysomething girl in the Fifites.
“Quite often when you’re fitting actresses, they’ll think, ‘This looks really fuddyduddy.’ But no. This looks contemporary for the Fifties but you’re thinking it looks like
that because you see older people wearing it now.”
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Everyone dressed much more smartly than we usually do today.
“Men wore ties out, always. We’ve got a real range of men within this. Collars
buttoned up, hatted gents and all that. It’s an era I adore costuming.
“The things I referenced included an Ealing Studios film called Pool of London, which
was filmed on location in London in 1951. What struck me was how contemporary it
looked.
“The men wore hats and ties but the women didn’t all have gloves and hats and
coats. There was a fluidity to it that I really wanted to get into this production. So that
it feels real and you can relate to the characters without them seeming like they’re
from a period drama.”
Anna’s research also included talking to members of her own family.
“My first port of call was my grandparents. My granny had to save up her rationing
coupons to make her wedding dress.
“She had a friend who made a wedding dress out of Gingham dish cloths pieced
together. There’s a photo of it and it could have been on a catwalk. It looked like
couture fashion. But this was just everyday women who had to make do and mend.”
Anna’s credits include: The Jury II; Citadel; The Deep; Hope Springs; Rebus.
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ANNA MAXWELL MARTIN IS SUSAN
Everything added up for Anna Maxwell Martin when she read the scripts for The
Bletchley Circle. Apart from one thing…
“My character Susan is a mathematics expert which is a stretch for me because I’m
not. I can’t even do the Sudoko,” she laughs. “I am addicted to the crossword. That’s
the only way in which I’m like her.
“But when I started reading the first couple of pages I really liked the idea and
thought, ‘Yes, I want to do this.’ Partly because it was a thriller and based in the
1950s and I haven’t really done anything in that era. There was also the link to
Bletchley Park and I was fascinated by all of that.”
Susan carried out crucial code-breaking work at Bletchley during the Second World
War but has to keep her role secret from others, including civil servant husband
Timothy.
“There are two sides to this which I found interesting. Number one is signing the
Official Secrets Act so they could not tell anyone what they were doing or had done.
Which is a very interesting concept and very difficult for us in this modern age to
understand truly what that meant.
“Men and women just got on with their daily lives. They also didn’t harp on about
traumas from the war and it put huge pressure on family life.
“I came across many couples who had not told one another what they were up to and
husbands and wives who felt very aggrieved by that in later life, that there had been
a secret throughout their marriage.
“But secondly what that meant for a woman. Susan has had to suppress a huge part
of herself and by the early 1950s has become a housewife who is balancing the
books, cooking, cleaning, domesticity, and being a mother to two children.
“I found that really fascinating about her. And the stuff I really love in Bletchley is
between her and her husband and how it impacts on their marriage.”
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The clock ticks loudly in Susan’s tidy home with puzzles and those crosswords no
match for her frustrated problem solving brain.
Meanwhile outside on the streets of London a killer is targeting women and evading
the police. Which is when Susan puts her skills to better use again, treating the
murders in the same way as a code.
“She’s a very driven person and has repressed this thing inside her, which is this
fascination with patterns and with order. That’s her gift. But she gets to the point
where she can no longer suppress it because of these murders that keep happening.
“Susan feels she can contribute to the search for the killer and can no longer ignore
what she is. She believes she knows things the police don’t know. And women are
being killed. I think if you thought you knew information you would feel compelled to
come forward and share it.
“She is pretty naive in the beginning. I think the police know a lot more than she
thinks they know. She’s quite an arrogant person, especially about what she believes
is true.”
Location staff found the perfect house in south London to depict Susan’s 1950s’
home.
“The art department didn’t have to do a huge amount to it. The people who art direct
on these productions are always unbelievably brilliant. You go on the set and you
always feel much better about the day.
“It must be incredibly difficult, especially for young people today, to imagine what it
was like then with rationing and everything else. When we were discussing how I
wanted Susan to look it was a huge part of it for me that she should look as if she
had very little vanity.
“They’re not dressed really in what we consider to be Fifties clothes. They’re dressed
in late Forties clothes because women like Susan and her friends wouldn’t have had
the money to suddenly change their wardrobe and be on trend.
“And Susan certainly is not the sort of person who would spend a long time doing her
hair or make up or buying clothes. It was a very austere time.”
Anna and the rest of the cast filmed at Bletchley Park for the opening 1940s’ scenes.
“Bletchley loved what the art designers had done to the hut and wanted to keep it. It
was great to go up there and film.
“I didn’t know a huge amount about Bletchley Park beforehand. Obviously I learned
quite a lot over the course of this and kept stumbling into people I knew whose
parents had been at Bletchley.
“I’ve been fascinated by that post-war period which I studied at university and, again,
that’s partly why I was drawn to this. That whole concept of who she becomes - this
normal suburban housewife - in the post-war period after doing such an extraordinary
thing during the war. I find that really intriguing.”
After taking her suspicions to the police, Susan realises she needs help and turns to
former Bletchley colleague and friend Millie (Rachael Stirling) and then Lucy (Sophie
Rundle) and Jean (Julie Graham).
The Bletchley Circle
15
Together they hunt for the murderer with a form of profiling way ahead of its time.
“There was someone at Scotland Yard at that time doing an early form of that kind of
thing. And he brought in a psychologist who was with him side by side and helped
him solve murders, which is a radical thing to do at the time. So it was starting to
happen. But it was a pretty slow burn.”
Anna may not be a maths expert but she did share one other skill with Susan as she
filmed scenes of her life at home in 1952.
“They said, ‘Oh, your knitting double is here.’ And I said, ‘I’ll do my own knitting,
thanks.’
“Maybe they secretly did use her for a close-up when I wasn’t there. But I was intent
on doing my own knitting. I’ve knitted all my life. I’m proud of my knitting!”
Anna’s credits include: South Riding; The Night Watch; Accused; Poppy
Shakespeare; Bleak House.
The Bletchley Circle
16
RACHAEL STIRLING IS MILLIE
Flags were flying high when Rachael Stirling filmed at historic Bletchley Park on the
last day of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations in June.
As hundreds of thousands cheered the Queen at Buckingham Palace, the TV team
were busy capturing scenes for the start of The Bletchley Circle.
“Bletchley Park itself was open to the public and very much Jubilee,” recalls Rachael.
“I think visitors thought we were an added bonus - to see these girls dressed up in
1940s costumes pottering about the place.
“What made it rather more poignant was that there were all these flags waving about
the place - bunting all over Bletchley. Obviously not in the hut we were filming in but
outside.
“The place has a real sense of celebrating Great Britain and its history. And there we
were re-living the scenes at the site of this place that was one of the things that
makes Britain great. So to be there on that day with the bunting waving was all
together fitting.
“What is fascinating about Bletchley is what happened when you put together this
cocktail of eccentrics in one quite cramped space. You had the brains of Britain from
all walks of life. It was a pot boiling of fascinating British characters.
“It’s absolutely acknowledged that those who worked at Bletchley were instrumental
in achieving victory for Britain in the war. But having achieved that, you weren’t
allowed to talk about what you had done and were still bound by the Official Secrets
Act.
“So all these rather extraordinary people could never refer to what they’d done in the
past, put it on their CV or anything.”
The main part of the story takes place in 1952 London as the four women meet up
again to track down a killer.
What was Rachael’s initial reaction when she read the scripts?
“That I wanted to be in it. I’m quite good at talking myself out of parts or I read a part
and think, ‘I know an actress who’d be brilliant for that.’ But when it came to Millie I
felt I could serve her best.
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“So I very much went for the part. I went into the audition and said, ‘You must give
this to me because clearly I am Millie.’
“Although Millie is brilliant with maps - and I’m not. If my geography teacher were to
write a report now she would have said, ‘Rachael will find it difficult finding her way
home.’ I am rubbish at maps and have no sense of direction.”
By the 1950s Millie is working in a cafe, having travelled the world after her war
service at Bletchley Park.
“Millie is the most modern of all these four women. She’s single, quite bohemian,
adventurous and breaks the mould of what was expected of women in the Fifties.
She’s also probably quite lonely.
“She’s obviously bright and has this symbiotic relationship with Susan, played by
Anna Maxwell Martin. They work as a team together. Susan is the more serious while
Millie is more light-hearted and bombastic.
“There is a latent sadness about the fact that they’ve become estranged in the years
between their working together at Bletchley Park and the 1950s.
“That’s what makes this different to a normal detective drama, the familiarity and
history between all these women. And certainly Susan and Millie’s relationship is at
the heart of that.
“Millie comes home from her travels to an unfamiliar England and to no history that
she can speak of. So she has to start at the bottom and she’s lost. She’s working in a
cafe when Susan comes to find her and asks for her help. It’s a lifeline for Millie at
that time.”
The early 1950s was a time of post-war rationing and austerity.
“The Sixties was a reaction to this incredibly heavy oppressive depression that took
hold of Britain in the Fifties and our set designers reflected that brilliantly, along with
our costume designer.
“Millie’s flat is amazing. It’s wonderful when you walk in and it absolutely reflects the
character. We were all secretly trying to steal the props off the set.”
“We’ve steered away from the florals that make the Fifties look like they were a barrel
of laughs for everyone. It was quite sombre and still a matter of survival. Post-war
heady celebrations didn’t last long until the reality kicked in. That was a depressing
place to be.
“Certainly for women who had taken up these jobs in the war and discovered both a
financial independence and, to a certain extent, an intellectual independence in the
absence of men.
“They were told to give up their jobs, give them back to the boys who were returning
from the war and go back to looking after the kids. There was a sense of
dispossession.
“Life was tough, certainly for these four women. Part of the reason they become so
fascinated and galvanised by coming back together is that it harks back to a time
when they were useful.”
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Rachael, Anna Maxwell Martin (Susan), Julie Graham (Jean) and Sophie Rundle
(Lucy) also formed a bond away from the cameras.
“Sophie was the youngest and quietest to begin with but by the end she was just as
loud as the rest of us. It’s so rare that you’re on a set that is actually womenorientated.
“Our First Assistant Director, who was a man, said at the end, ‘Ladies, I was slightly
dreading this when I realised there were going to be four women at the centre of it.
May I just say, I’ve learned more about the female anatomy over the course of filming
than I ever thought I would. And I was present at both my daughters’ births.’”
Rachael has just finished filming a guest role in Doctor Who alongside her mother
Dame Diana Rigg. They play a mother and daughter in an episode to be screened in
2013.
Rachael’s credits include: Tipping The Velvet; Boy Meets Girl; Women In Love;
Salmon Fishing In The Yemen.
The Bletchley Circle
19
SOPHIE RUNDLE IS LUCY
It’s been quite a first year out of drama school for Sophie Rundle. After graduating
from RADA in the summer of 2011, she landed roles in Titanic, Garrow’s Law and as
Matt LeBlanc’s stalker in Episodes.
But Sophie says she won’t forget her first major drama serial role in The Bletchley
Circle, especially as her character Lucy has an eidetic - photographic - memory.
“When you first meet Lucy it’s very clear that she’s younger than the others but has
this extraordinary photographic memory, which is why she’s been plucked to go and
work at Bletchley Park.
“She’s come from a very working class background and never expected to have the
experience that she got there and to meet these amazing women.
“She’s like an early computer. But actually in real life my own memory is not that
good. So I was slightly intimidated when I got the part. There’s a huge chunk of
speech in one of the scenes at Bletchley Park and I was like, ‘How am I going to
remember that?’ But I got through it and it was fine.
“I looked into eidetic memory and it’s a real phenomena. People have varying
degrees of them but Lucy’s is particularly strong. I wish I had that so I could
memorise things.
“But it can also be a curse because she can’t forget what she sees. She has seen
amazing things but has also seen things that will scar her and they won’t leave her.”
Adds Lucy: “When the war finishes for Lucy she goes back to her life as it would
have been. She gets married and doesn’t expect much. Yet she’s had a taste of what
it’s like to have those extraordinary friendships and meet these amazing people.
“She’s surprised by how much she misses that and how lonely she is. So when the
other three women come back into her life she’s overjoyed and thrilled to be part of
the gang again. But she doesn’t quite expect this adventure to take her where it
does.”
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20
Lucy’s husband is controlling and abusive.
“At that point in history a lot of that behaviour did go on behind closed doors. These
women were often told to be subservient to their husbands. That’s how you were
expected to behave. Unfortunately Lucy’s husband takes that to a new level.
“Lucy lives with that fear and constant oppression and bullying. It makes it all the
more heartbreaking when you see how hopeful she is and how she wants to do the
right thing. She’s so brave to carry on and not hide away.”
At one stage Lucy volunteers to act as bait and try and help draw out the identity of
the killer when travelling on a train.
“The girls who are being murdered are similar to her in age and don’t look dissimilar
to her. She feels she has to do it to protect other women and makes a hugely brave
decision.”
Some scenes were filmed on the Bluebell Railway in Sussex.
“We were in amazing old vintage carriages with a steam engine on the front and
going back and forth between two stations all day. The people who worked there
loved seeing all the extras in costume bringing it to life.
“Filming at Bletchley Park itself was also really cool. It was actually quite moving to
be there where women like our characters worked and imagine what it was like for
them. It was steeped in history and it felt like we were honouring it by going there.”
The people there during the Second World War could not talk about their top secret
work, even years later.
“People did keep secrets then and they really stuck by them. You gave your word
and you kept it. These secrets often only came out when they got older or after they
died.
The early 1950s was a time of rationing, austerity and frustration.
“The war turned people’s worlds upside down. There was so much fear and people
lost so much. When it ended there was huge jubilation but then the realisation that
cities and lives had to be rebuilt.
“I read lots of books about day to day life and that really helped. My grandparents
also remembered the drab colours of the 1950s and how much hard work it was.”
Lucy and her three friends have very limited resources when it comes to tracking
down the killer.
“Today we’ve got information accessible at our fingertips. We can go anywhere
across the world and talk to anyone via a smartphone in our pocket. We forget how
different it once was in terms of any research you wanted to do or information you
needed to send.”
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21
After filming small roles in Titanic and Garrow’s Law, Sophie landed the role of Matt
LeBlanc’s American stalker Labia in Episodes.
“On one of my first days of filming I was sat chatting away to Matt LeBlanc. He’s
talking about the Golden Globes and I’m like, ‘Yeah, I live in London.’ And I had this
T-shirt on for the character that said, ‘How you doin?’ It was completely mad. I’m not
a stalker in real life!”
Did Sophie always want to be an actress?
“I was going to be a spaceman and then I was going to have my own newspaper.
And then, when I was about 11, I did a production of Alice In Wonderland and caught
the acting bug completely.”
Sophie also appears in the autumn 2012 series of Merlin, a new feature film version
of Great Expectations and BBC1 drama Shetland.
Was this the first year out of drama school that she envisaged?
“I didn’t at all,” laughs Sophie. “I was slightly terrified when it came to the end of my
third year and was quite nervous about what it would be like.
“But I’ve been so lucky. I had the best time at RADA and learned a lot. But you’ve got
so much more to learn, actually being out there and working on film and TV.
“I’ve worked with some incredible people so far. Long may it continue because I’m
just having a complete blast. Lots of adventures and learning. It’s been a dream.”
Sophie’s credits include: Episodes; Garrow’s Law; Titanic; Merlin; Shetland; Great
Expectations.
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22
JULIE GRAHAM IS JEAN
The four actresses who make up The Bletchley Circle formed a real life bond off
screen.
“We had an absolute hoot filming this and we really did adore each other,” reflects
Julie Graham.
“I think one of the reasons the drama works is that we did have a very good
chemistry, all four of us. It was just a great combination. We really got on. A happy
accident.”
Julie plays Miss Jean McBrien, who was in charge of the other three girls at Bletchley
Park during the Second World War and by the 1950s is working as a librarian.
“Jean is very stoic, well organised and practical. She’s a woman of a certain age
living on her own in London and respected within the group. She’s definitely the one
that does everything by the book and is the moral backbone.
“She has a very severe look. Jean wouldn’t have had much money so would still
have all her clothes from the war and not changed the way she looks very much.”
Julie adds: “I was intrigued when I first read the scripts. You don’t often see femaleled dramas in that way. And I thought it was a great story on two levels.
“There is the thriller element and also the interesting social history of Bletchley Park
and the imagining of what happened to the women after they had to go back to their
mundane lives.”
The production team left no stone unturned when it came to creating an authentic
backdrop for The Bletchley Circle.
“The art department was one of the best I’ve ever worked with. They were really
brilliant. The attention to detail on every single set absolutely helped to immerse you
in the period and the time. It just makes your job so much easier because it’s all
there.”
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A few early scenes were filmed at Bletchley Park itself.
“That was brilliant. It did add a lot to the atmosphere, just knowing that was the actual
place where they all worked and get a real feel for the place.
“It was a testament to the art department that when the people at Bletchley Park saw
the set they asked if they could keep it because they said it was so authentic.
“The staff there also brought out the real machines used in the war and were
wonderfully enthusiastic, showing everybody how they worked.
“I probably did more reading and research on that subject, even though it’s a tiny part
of the drama, because it’s such an interesting period of history.
“It amazes me that some people who worked there still won’t talk about it. Lots of
people took the knowledge and the stuff they did there to the grave.
“They really did keep it all secret. But at last the contribution of women is being
recognised more than it was. Now there’s a lot more documentation and anecdotal
evidence and some books have been written, so it gave people the confidence to
come forward and talk.
“That’s what’s nice about being an actor sometimes. Whatever you’re doing, you can
reference it. So you might read things that you wouldn’t normally read. I always knew
about Bletchley Park and Alan Turing but I wasn’t really aware of the machinations of
what the women actually did there.”
Julie continues: “What’s clever about the plot of this drama is we meet these women
again in the early 1950s as they reunite to track down a murderer who is targeting
women.
“And because they are women in that era, they’re very invisible. So they can poke
their noses in and find out information without arousing suspicion in any way. Their
invisibility is really helpful to the hunt for the killer because they’re ignored.
“In the beginning Jean is quite uncomfortable with them taking things into their own
hands in terms of the law. She struggles with that.
“But events drive her to go down a road she wouldn’t necessarily go down. She’s so
appalled by what has happened and is happening.
“The 1950s must have been an incredibly strange period for these women. Some
who worked during the war were relieved to go back to having children and being in
the home. It was hard work during the war for them.
“But for some women it must have been very frustrating to go back to normality.
Certainly Anna’s character Susan falls into that category and feels her life is quite
dull.
“Britain still had rationing at this time and it must have taken a long time to adjust to
normal life. Even in terms of women having their men back and also for the men who
had been away at war - also trying to adjust to a so-called normal life.
“So many marriages must have suffered and in those days it was harder to get
divorced. It must have been very hard for everyone.”
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Jean has exceptional organising and admin skills. How does Julie measure up?
“I’ve got children so I’m good at organising that side of things. Paper work and all that
sort of stuff is just something that’s got to be done. I’ve got a system. It’s probably
chaotic but it works for me.
“People would be horrified if they saw it - mostly it’s chucking bits of paper in a big file
and then sending it to my accountant. That’s about my limit. In real life I would find
that kind of job endlessly tedious and dull. I admire people who can do it. But it
wouldn’t be for me.”
Julie’s credits include: Survivors; William and Mary; Mobile; Doc Martin.
The Bletchley Circle
25
EPISODE SYNOPSES
The following synopses are published in the press pack for forward planning
purposes only. Please do not reproduce entirely and do not publish the end of
the story. Many thanks.
Episode one
1943 - Bletchley Park
Inside one of the machine huts Susan (Anna Maxwell Martin) is analysing reams of
decrypted German data when suddenly something catches her eye. For anyone else,
it would be lost in the confusion, but Susan’s specialty is patterns, and she thinks
she’s seen one here. Checking the details with Millie (Rachael Stirling) and Lucy
(Sophie Rundle) they confirm her initial thoughts; she believes she has spotted a
code for German battle orders within the cipher. Jean (Julie Graham) instructs Susan
to take it straight to the top, to the Colonel, and the women wait anxiously for Susan
to return. Some hours later Susan rejoins the group and tells them that their theory
was correct - the British troops now know where the next German battle is going to
take place.
May 1952 - London
Nine years later and Susan is now a housewife, married to Timothy (Mark Dexter)
and mother to their two children. Her code-breaking days at Bletchley Park are a
distant memory. But when Susan thinks she has spotted a pattern in a string of
murders happening in London, it’s clear that her mind is still as sharp as ever. Susan
approaches Timothy about taking her theory to the police. Timothy is shocked that
his wife is concerning herself with such awful business but eventually agrees to help
her meet with the Deputy Commissioner of Scotland Yard, Wainwright (Michael
Gould), who he served with in the war.
Susan meets with Wainwright and explains her pattern to him. She explains that
although four girls have been found, she believes there is another missing girl whose
body has not yet been discovered. Although at first cynical, Wainwright soon
becomes intrigued by Susan’s noticeable intellect and realises that she must have
done more than just clerical work in the war. Wainwright instructs his men to search
the area that Susan has pinpointed. But the police return empty handed, no missing
girl is found, and Susan is forced to return home.
Feeling upset and defeated, Susan takes down all of the newspaper cuttings and
information she had collected in secret on the murders, and burns them. When she
comes across a picture of Millie, Lucy and herself, taken at Bletchley Park, she stops.
The words ‘Never be ordinary’ are written on the back and this strikes a chord with
Susan. She decides to contact her old friends from Bletchley and bring together their
skills to catch the serial killer before he strikes again.
Susan and the women meet under the guise of a ‘Philosophy and Literature club’ and
Susan explains why she has brought them all together. Initially Lucy and Jean are
reluctant to get involved, it’s incredibly dangerous and something the police are
dealing with. The women leave Susan’s house with no plans to carry on Susan’s
investigation into the murders or even meet up again. But just as Susan predicted,
another girl, Mary Lawrence, goes missing, and the women all realise they cannot
stand by and do nothing. Susan, Millie, Jean and Lucy set about finding Mary
Lawrence before its too late.
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Treating the crimes like a code to be cracked, the women gather all the information
and evidence they can find. They obtain the full mortuary reports of the murdered
girls and discover that they weren’t just murdered; they were murdered and then
raped. Then through a sequence of clever deductions relating to the location of the
bodies, the dates and times they were found and the journeys they were making on
the day they died, the women realise that the killer is using the rail network to find his
victims. By following the pattern the killer has been making and by cross-correlating
their train data, the women work out where the missing girl, Mary Lawrence, must
have been taken. Will they reach her in time to save her before the killer claims his
fifth victim?
The Bletchley Circle
27
Episode two
Susan (Anna Maxwell Martin) attends Mary Lawrence’s funeral. She returns to the
women in the back room of Jean’s (Julie Graham) library that has now been
transformed into a full-scale investigation room. The women now believe that the
killer is either a guard or a ticket inspector who has worked on the stopping service
from St Pancreas to Barking.
The women manage to narrow their list of suspects down to just three men but
without doing a vector analysis (a very lengthy process used at Bletchley) they won’t
be able to reduce the possibilities any further. With the police appealing for help from
the public and only a few days until the killer is due to strike again, the women decide
that Susan should take their information to Scotland Yard so that the police can
investigate the three men and find out which one is the killer.
At Scotland Yard, Deputy Commissioner Wainwright (Michael Gould) is called into
another meeting and Susan must discuss her theory behind their three suspects with
D.C.I. Compton (Simon Sherlock). Unfortunately, D.C.I. Compton is really only
interested in hard evidence and dismisses her information as just ideas. Susan gives
the names of the three men – Tommy Casterwell, Anthony Cross and Gerald
Wiggins to D.C.I. Compton but she knows that he hasn’t taken her seriously.
With the police not listening to Susan and her friends, they realise it is now up to
them to stop the killer before he takes his next victim – which according to the
timetable he has been working to, will be in 3 days time. They decide to do a vector
analysis on the data they have for the murders and this uncovers a very significant
detail. Every aspect to do with the first murder is exactly the same as the last, there is
no variation at all – it’s as if when the first girl was murdered, the killer already knew
what he was doing. The women think that perhaps the murderer has killed before,
perhaps in other parts of the country. Jean and Lucy head to Colindale Records
Archive to see if they can uncover articles from the past about similar murders
outside of London. Meanwhile Susan and Millie decide to do their own investigation
by talking to the wives and neighbours of their suspects under the guise of selling
house insurance. The information they gain from Mrs. Casterwell (Sarah Finigan) and
Mrs. Cross (Joanna Brookes) is enough for them to rule out those two men as
suspects, however, when they talk to Mr. Wiggins’s neighbour, they realise that
Gerald Wiggins may indeed be the killer.
All the women meet back in the library and Jean and Lucy relay their discovery.
They found seven other cases of murdered girls in other parts of the country, which
are exactly the same as the murders in London. The murderer has killed before but
he has also set up other men to take the blame, because other men have either been
hanged or committed for life for the crimes.
Jean recognises that many of the skills that the killer is demonstrating are
reminiscent of those used in a special department in the war called Electra House,
which dealt with forgery and deception. She tries to track down the name of the head
of the specialised department through an old colleague Angela Barker (Anastasia
Hille), but she denies all knowledge.
Susan goes to see Deputy Commissioner Wainwright to tell him about the other
murders but before she has a chance to explain, Wainwright informs her that the
police did follow up on the names she gave D.C.I. Compton and they have arrested
Gerald Wiggins. The police found enough evidence to connect him with all three of
the murdered girls but they are not making the arrest public until they have a full
confession. Susan is distraught, this is what she feared would happen, and she was
too late.
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With the police no longer looking for the murderer and also withholding information
about the arrest of Wiggins, the women realise they have no option but to try and lure
the killer out themselves. They know the exact train line and time of train where he is
due to strike, and they know what kind of women he is looking for, so at Lucy’s
behest she puts herself forward to be the bait. The women help to dress Lucy in
alluring clothing and as a final touch, Millie dabs a drop of perfume onto Lucy’s wrist.
The women freeze, they all recognise that smell - the perfume from the cellar where
they found Mary Lawrence. Millie had acquired a bottle of the perfume from her
connection on the black market thinking it would add to the effect – and then it dawns
on the women how the killer is getting the women off the train. He lures them off with
the promise of hard to obtain items that can be bought on the black market.
Looking the part, but scared as hell, Lucy gets on the 6.15 train from St Pancras to
Barking and Susan watches her from a short distance in another carriage. But the
operation goes horribly wrong, and Lucy is assaulted not by the killer but by an
ordinary clerk looking for a good time. When Lucy returns home, her husband Harry
(Ed Birch) notices the bruises on her thigh and assumes that she has been
adulterous and punishes her by severely beating her.
The women are truly shaken up by the incident on the train and the decision whether
or not to carry on is not taken lightly. Jean goes back to see Angela and blackmails
her into giving her the name of the head of Electra House. Jean gives Susan the
information and she goes to see the retired spook, Mr. Cavendish (Simon Williams),
who thinks he knows who the killer could be – a man named Malcolm Crowley who
worked in his department, but who apparently died in a fire after the war. Cavendish
admits that he always chose not to question Crowley’s death, but now that his
suspicions have been confirmed he hands over all the paperwork he has on this
man, which isn’t much.
When Susan arrives home Timothy (Mark Dexter) tells her that Millie phoned –
Lucy’s been in an accident. Susan rushes over to Millie’s flat where the women are
looking after Lucy. As they sit with Lucy they listen to the wireless and hear the
report of Wiggins’s arrest. Later that evening and Susan is restless - Millie suggests
that she should go and to talk to the psychiatrist Dr Tremaine at the Meredith
Hospital who assessed Crowley during the war. Susan heads to the Meredith
Hospital; completely unaware of the danger that awaits her...
The Bletchley Circle
29
Episode three
At the Meredith Hospital Susan (Anna Maxwell Martin) is met by a man named
Andrew Croft (Steven Robertson). He explains that they are being transferred to a
new building and he’s the last to leave. Croft leads Susan up to his office where he
tells her that the man she’s looking for, Dr Tremaine is retired, but he says he does
remember the patient Malcolm Crowley.
Andrew Croft becomes more and more intrigued by Susan, especially when he
realises how she ended up at the Meredith Hospital and how she pieced the puzzle
together all by herself. Andrew Croft then says something which alarms Susan and
she realises that her patterns have lead her here because she is in fact sitting
opposite the killer. Andrew Croft IS Malcolm Crowley. As soon as she realises who
he is, Susan makes her excuses and leaves. Crowley watches her go. Susan rushes
back to Millie (Rachael Stirling) and Jean (Julie Graham) and tells them what
happened. She can’t believe that she was face to face with the killer and he just let
her go. They head back to the Meredith Hospital with a policeman and the excuse
that a man stole Susan’s handbag and ran in the building with it. But when they reach
Crowley’s office, the place is completely deserted. Susan returns home, she’s a
mess and Timothy (Mark Dexter) is furious. Tonight was the memorial dinner for the
man who saved Timothy’s life in the war. Although Susan is desperately apologetic, it
is yet another incident, which just adds to the cracks in their relationship.
Susan goes back to see Cavendish (Simon Williams) and asks to see Crowley’s
whole file, not just the bits that he was happy to show. Susan believes that there is
something in Crowley’s past that will help them find where he is now. Eventually,
Cavendish agrees to try and retrieve Crowley’s file from the archives, if that will help
them find Crowley. When Susan arrives home there is a parcel waiting for her. It’s a
book by Ovid. Susan freezes. Before she left Crowley’s office he recited something to
her in Latin. She calls the women and between them they work out the relevance of
the quote that Crowley repeated to Susan and its connection with the book by Ovid.
It’s clear now that Crowley’s obsession with Susan has begun and the women vow to
be very careful from now on.
Some days later when Susan is at home, Timothy gives her that day’s paper so that
she can complete the crossword. But not only is it not their usual paper, the
crossword has been completed, except for three answers. Susan realises that the
three blank answers are the same as Cavendish’s house number – she tries calling
him but there’s no answer. Once Timothy and the children have gone to the lido,
Susan head’s straight out of the door and goes to see Cavendish.
At his house Susan discovers Cavendish has shot himself - it looks like suicide.
Susan calls the women and they come to join her. They’re horrified, upset, and Lucy
says she can’t bear to see another dead body – every night she still relives the sight
of Mary Lawrence lying dead in the cellar. Susan, Millie and Jean force themselves to
go into Cavendish’s study to see if they can find any clues in there. It’s clear that
Cavendish must have been on to something, he must have been getting close to
finding out where they could find Crowley and that must be the reason why Crowley
killed him. Susan notices a stack of pictures on the desk. These are the pictures that
Cavendish and his men produced in the war, which he told Susan he was not proud
to have been associated with. Susan thinks it’s strange that Cavendish had been
looking at the pictures and wonders whether there might be a clue in them. She also
notices a stack of personnel files from Electra House in the desk drawer, and
Crowley’s is missing.
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Susan reports Cavendish’s death to Wainwright (Michael Gould) who tells her she
should stop whatever investigation she is doing for her sake as well as Timothy’s.
Following Cavendish’s death the women think very hard about whether or not to
continue to try and find Crowley, but they know that if they don’t, then he’s just going
to move on somewhere else and more girls will be killed.
The women’s investigation resumes. Susan is looking through the pictures she took
from Cavendish’s study and in a separate pack she finds the ones that Crowley
worked on after he became trapped in the rubble when the bomb destroyed the
building he worked in. Susan notices that all the faces in the pictures are of the same
woman.
Jean, Susan, Millie and Lucy visit Angela (Anastasia Hille) to see if she can help
them find out who the woman in the pictures was. It was Julie Oakwood. Julie
Oakwood was Crowley’s unrequited love, he was trapped with Julie’s corpse for
three days and it is the very incident that fundamentally changed Crowley into the
killer he is. The women believe that this is what Cavendish had discovered and that
Julie Oakwood is the key to finding Crowley. That night, Susan is working late into
the night when Claire (Jocelyn MacNab), her daughter comes downstairs. She’s
adamant that the bogeyman is outside the house, watching her and she can’t sleep.
Susan assures her there is no one there but is clear that this has really unnerved her.
The next day the women find a telephone number for Julie Oakwood’s father and
believing that there must be a connection between Julie, her family and where
Crowley can be found, Susan phones the telephone number for him. She tells the
women that she’s going to see Mr. Oakwood as he remembers someone called
Crowley hanging around Julie. Susan says that she will go alone because she
doesn’t want Mr. Oakwood to feel overwhelmed. As Susan leaves the library we see
her take Millie’s gun out of her bag and slip it into hers.
Susan arrives at the terraced house that she believes Julie Oakwood’s father lives in.
And down in the cellar of the house is Malcolm Crowley, the same man that she
came face to face with at the Meredith Hospital. Crowley had planned this all along.
He killed Cavendish and planted pieces of information, which would ultimately lead
Susan to him. When Susan called the house, it was Crowley who answered and who
threatened to harm her family if she did not go to him. This was his ultimate plan, to
die with Susan and replicate the time when he almost died with Julie Oakwood.
Susan is in the cellar of the house with Crowley, he has a grenade in his hand and a
wire runs to a munitions box of explosives. He draws her closer and asks her to put
on the perfume, the same distinctive perfume she smelt around Mary Lawrence’s
body. There is no escape for Susan as she sees Crowley start to pull the cotter pin
from the grenade. Is this the end for Susan?
The above synopses are published in the press pack for forward planning
purposes only. Please do not reproduce entirely and do not
publish the end of the story. Many thanks.
The Bletchley Circle
31
CAST LIST
Anna Maxwell Martin ............................................................................... Susan
Rachael Stirling ......................................................................................... Millie
Sophie Rundle ........................................................................................... Lucy
Julie Graham.............................................................................................. Jean
Steven Robertson ......................................................................... Andrew Croft
Mark Dexter .......................................................................................... Timothy
Anastasia Hille ............................................................................ Angela Barker
Simon Williams ................................................................................. Cavendish
Ed Birch .................................................................................................... Harry
Michael Gould .............................................. Deputy Commissioner Wainwright
Matthew Cullum ....................................................................... Constable Barry
John Lightbody....................................................................... Sergeant George
Simon Sherlock ......................................................................... D.C.I. Compton
Jocelyn MacNab ...................................................................................... Claire
Elliot Kerley ................................................................................................ Sam
Jamie Glassman ....................................................................................... Vicar
Sarah Finigan............................................................................ Mrs. Casterwell
Joanna Brookes ............................................................................... Mrs. Cross
The Bletchley Circle
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PRODUCTION CREDITS
Writer .................................................................................................... Guy Burt
Producer ................................................................................... Jake Lushington
Director ................................................................................. Andy De Emmony
Executive Producer ........................................................................ Simon Heath
Line Producer..............................................................................Christine Healy
Director of Photography ................................................................ John Pardue
Casting Director ............................................................................. Julie Harkin
Script Editor ................................................................................ Aimee Ashwell
Script Supervisor......................................................................... Lindsay Grant
Art Director .......................................................................................... Tim Blake
Costume Designer ..................................................................... Anna Robbins
Make Up and Hair Designer ........................................... Karen Hartley Thomas
Production Designer ....................................................................... Mike Gunn
Editor ...................................................................................Stephen O’Connell
Composer ........................................................................................ Nick Green
1st Assistant Director ........................................................................ Toby Ford
2nd Assistant Director .................................................................. Andy Mannion
3rd Assistant Director .................................................................... Tussy Fachin
Prop Master ........................................................................... Craig Cheeseman
Sound Recordist ........................................................................ David Lascelles
Locations Manager ....................................................................... Simon Nixon
Unit Manager ......................................................................... James Alexander
Post Production Supervisor ........................................................... Kate Murrell
Production Coordinator ...................................................................Gwen Gorst
The Bletchley Circle
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