The Bletchley Circle (TV Series) Cracking a Killer's Code: Part 2 (2012) User Reviews

The might of four.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 9/10 · 13 October 2018]

With the four minds working as one unit the killer's days are surely numbered. The second part builds the story, and delves further into the lives of the four main characters.

The episode is ultimately successful, in thay it builds on the story, which gets darker and more intruguing, it develops each of the characters, giving them all plausible lives, and it manages to successfully create a flavour of life in Britain in the 1950's, giving an insight into what life was like for many women.

The acting is impeccable once again. All perform beautifully, but for me it's Anna Maxwell Martin who steals the show, her acting and character are engrossing. She was definitely the missing element in the recent Bletchley San Francisco series.

It's so interesting, so well constructed, I can't wait to see the conclusion. 9/10

The girls get closer to the killer as he gets closer to them

[Tweekums · 7/10 · 14 September 2012]

As the case continues the girls whittle there list of suspects down to just three; all of them working on the railway out of St. Pancras. They pass there list on to the police but as they don't seem interested they decide to pay a visit to each of their wives to learn a bit more about them. This doesn't help them identify the killer but it does prove that it wasn't one of those three. It looks like the theory about the killer being a railway worker was wrong; so who else would young women get of a train with; it must be somebody they trust… or somebody with something they want! A check on similar cases suggest that he killed before; twelve girls in total! They believe the killer must be an expert at misdirection as clues were left to suggest that other men were responsible; some of whom were hanged. In an attempt to lure out the killer they use Lucy as bait on the train and she soon gets a man's attention.

The story, in this the second of three episodes, moves along nicely as the former Bletchley girls continue to use their wartime skills to track the killer. There was a greater sense of danger this time as they put themselves in dangerous situations; deliberately in Lucy's case and, as the episode ends, accidentally in the case of Susan. The actresses all perform well as do the actors playing Lucy and Susan's husbands; Ed Birch was particularly chilling as Lucy's abusive husband even though only appearing briefly. The only real fault I spotted was that they caught a Southern Railway train out of St. Pancras… as any railway buff will tell you St. Pancras was on the LMS… although by the '50s the railways had been nationalised so it should have been a British Railways train… a minor quibble that shouldn't spoil anybody's enjoyment!

By the time the episode ends we know exactly who the killer is, how he gained his skills and why he kills; now we just have to hope he is caught before he strikes again! I'm certainly looking forward to seeing how it ends although I'll be sad to see the series end.

Facing the Enemy

[Hitchcoc · 9/10 · 14 July 2017]

In a male dominated culture, these four women realize that they need to do something to catch a serial killer. While Scotland Yard appreciates their work (actually only aware of one of them), they choose to do all the interpreting and have no imagination. So at the conclusion of the first episode, the women come upon one of the victims and are put off. They decide to take dramatic steps, placing one of their own in harm's way. Things don't go well. Finally, they begin to act strongly, doing a bit of threatening (they have knowledge of actions during the war which they could use against some people). But the male presence continues to obstruct their efforts. One of them is beaten severely by her husband when he suspects she is meeting a man (she was the decoy and she was nearly raped). There are some unique dynamics. As we move on ahead, Susan, who thought all of this up, has just gone to a psychiatric hospital. Unfortunately, there is another fly in the ointment. A man has been arrested, but it is obvious to the women, he is not the one. He's been framed by the real bad guy.