Wednesday 26 September 2012

Station X

TheBletchleyCircle

Did you watch The Bletchley Circle recently? I did – with great anticipation. Especially when it appeared that the chief protagonist had been recruited to Station X at BP from her job as a clerk in the Foreign Office. That is exactly what happened to MY MUM!

Unfortunately that is about the sum total of my knowledge of my mum’s wartime experience. She would not speak about it. At all. Ever. Not even to Dad.

But I did find this series a little irritating.

ration bookFor a start 1952 was the year the King died. We all know that – cos we have just celebrated the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. But what was said about the King’s Funeral, or the Coronation? Many things were still on ration – but they only had a brief allusion to that at the beginning of Episode One [and the family ate a HUGE piece of meat later on]

They had a dimmer switch in their dining room. Susan appeared to be knitting with bamboo needles [surely they are MUCH newer?] In fact I kept noticing anachronistic details which jarred with me. It rather spoiled the plot. I suppose I am being too picky – but people would be shouting from the rooftops if there were errors in the historical accuracies of Downton, or Parade’s End.

And then the last episode was so contrived, the behaviour of the four women seemed rather silly. If they were so intelligent that they were recruited to decode the Grand German War Schemes, would they really act in such ludicrous ways?

I do hope they don’t decide to make a follow-up series! Rant over.

6 comments:

  1. I read the premise of the program and thought....ooh, I'd love this (and felt a connection through you)but then I read program details and decided I would wait for a review from you....twas as I thought !
    Jane x

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  2. well done for you watching so closely. We haven't had that series over here yet..........mind you I must be one of the very few who hasn't even watched Downton Abbey either!!

    Gill

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  3. I didnt watch it, but the inaccuracies are par for the course, I think. My husband watches the Wartime Farm, groaning...'that tractor wasnt invented till after the war..'!

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  4. Hmm - like you I enjoyed the first two episodes but I haven't even bothered watching the last one and it's still on the hard drive. Basically the trailer at the end of episode 2 completely put me off and it all sounded very silly. Jx

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  5. I'm sorry I missed this as we used to live near Bletchley Park - and, TBH, I'm not sure I would have noticed the anachronisms! - but I can imagine how annoying they'd be for those who did! (If that makes sense...)

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