CODE COMFORT
JULIE GRAHAM REVEALS HOW HER SERIES CAME BACK FROM CANCELLATION – AND WENT STATESIDE...
Once upon a time, if your favourite show got cancelled, that was it. You watched the final episode, you mourned, and you moved on. But things are different now: passionate fan campaigns have convinced broadcasters to change their minds, or streaming services like Netflix might step in to order another season.
Even so, there was one resurrection that took us completely by surprise: the news that ITV’S The Bletchley Circle, in which a group of former Second World War code breakers reunited to solve crimes, would be returning four years after its initial cancellation, with a new spin-off in which Millie (Rachael Stirling) and Jean (Julie Graham) relocate to San Francisco. And we weren’t the only ones who were taken aback by the news…
“I didn’t really think it would come back, because you just don’t,” Julie tells Inside TV. “Once you do a job, if it doesn’t get picked up, you think, ‘Oh well’ and let it go.”
Despite having put the show behind her, Julie was thrilled to hear from the show’s producer that a spin-off would be going ahead, and she thinks the change of location makes a lot of sense.
“In the States, they were obsessing about the Cold War,” she says. “All of the code breakers who had been employed during the Second World War were coming into fruition again to fight that. It made sense for those two, because Jean’s essentially a spinster and has no life, and Millie’s a social butterfly, who’s a bit of a free spirit.”
It’s not by chance that the duo end up in San Francisco either – their reason for heading to the west coast of America has to do with the tragic death of a former colleague, which Jean still harbours some guilt over.
“There was a young woman who, in Jean’s eyes, did something treacherous, so Jean had her transferred to another place,” explains Julie. “She felt guilty because the young girl ends up being murdered, and she blames herself. Another murder happens in San Francisco that’s exactly the same.
Millie’s a newshound so she comes to Jean and says, ‘It could be a serviceman who’s been travelling the world, let’s look into it’. Jean’s horrified, but Millie’s very persuasive!”
While the duo are very much out of their comfort zone when they arrive in San Francisco, they eventually find kindred spirits in Iris (Crystal Balint) and Hailey (Chanelle Peloso). Once they get over their initial distrust, the four of them join forces and make a formidable team…
“Iris was a code breaker in the same way that Millie was,” reveals Julie. “There’s been a spate of vicious killings in San Francisco, so her intelligence is pricked as to why. Hailey is a farm girl from the Prairies in Canada who worked with Iris during the war. She’s young and innocent, and quite delighted that she’s going to be involved in possibly solving murders – much to the horror of the other women!”
JEAN IS ESSENTIALLY A SPINSTER AND HAS NO LIFE...”