Rachel Stirling back in ‘Bletchley Circle: San Francisco’
Rachael Stirling was certain after the two seasons of “The Bletchley Circle” had been broadcast in England in 2012 and 2014 that the stories would end there. Cast and crew had been told there was another series with a predominantly female cast that would be airing instead. With the tale of four women who took the code-breaking skills they developed during World War II behind her, Stirling started working on a play in London’s West End and had a child.
Then she got the call that BritBox, the streaming service that mainly features British TV shows, was looking to revive “The Bletchley Circle” as their first original production. “The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco” picks up in 1956 with two of the original lead characters, Millie (Stirling) and Jean (Julie Graham), traveling to America to join forces with two U.S. codebreakers to tackle a string of new murder cases. In the first episode, the team goes after a serial killer from their Bletchley war days who has resurfaced in the United States.
“I had not a clue that the show would ever come back,” Stirling says. “It was absolutely unexpected. The idea of getting to play the character again was far away from the realms of my thinking of it being a possibility. I always thought it was a shame — a missed opportunity — that it did not continue because it was so original.”
The idea of taking the heart of the original show and moving it to San Francisco did seem a little bit of a stretch for Stirling until she heard the background for the series. She was well aware of the thousands of brilliant women in Britain who had worked on breaking codes during World War II. As soon as Stirling found out a similar group of bright women worked at the Presidio in San Francisco doing the same job and also lost their employment when the war ended, the concept of bringing the two groups together felt well within the limits of probability.
Once Stirling had accepted that she was going to play Millie Harcourt again, slipping back into the role was as easy and comfortable as putting on an old sweater. Stirling laughs and explains that she actually did slip into some old sweaters she had worked in during the first two seasons.
“In terms of the character, Millie is one of those great, bombastic post-war spirits who loves her capers, is unafraid. … She’s quite emotional, quite flighty and a joy to play,” Stirling says. “I enjoy her gung-ho quality.”
The London native shares a lot of qualities with the character, but the one place they are miles apart is in dealing with word puzzles. Stirling laughs as she talks about how she even struggles with crosswords.
The series maintains the elements of the first two seasons that spotlight the brilliance of extraordinary women piecing together a mystery, whether in connection with a cypher or serial killer. Joining Stirling and Graham in the cast of the new BritBox offering are Crystal Balint and Jennifer Spence.
One of the weaknesses Stirling saw in the first two seasons was the four main characters were defined in rather limited terms by the abilities they had from language skills to photographic memory. One big difference is the new incarnation will take time to look at the characters’ individual lives. A big part of the expansion will include Balint’s character, who is not only a wife and mother, but has a deep connection to the world of jazz.
As Stirling puts it, “the women are more rounded as characters so that we are not just four Miss Marples wandering about solving crimes.”
Being able to recognize a great part is something Stirling has cultivated throughout her life. The daughter of British acting legend Diana Rigg, Stirling has been working professionally on stage and screen since she was a teenager. Her credits include “Tipping the Velvet,” “Churchill’s Secret,” “Boy Meets Girl,” “Women in Love,” “The Game” and “The Detectorists.”
Only once has she worked with her mother, in a 2013 episode of “Doctor Who” written specifically for the acting pair by Mark Gatiss. The episode had Rigg playing Mrs. Gillyflower, a leader of a utopian community who preaches about the coming apocalypse, while Stirling played Gillyflower’s blind daughter. Although the episode is filled with mom abusing daughter, Sterling calls working on the episode as “dreamy” because there was so much laughter on set.
Stirling grew up with a famous acting mother, but she never saw working in the arts as something that was inevitable. She’s certainly glad it’s the career she selected.
“I feel incredibly privileged and if someone moans on the set I will look at them disapprovingly,” Stirling says. “We are not rubbing our fingers raw with the work we are doing. Hopefully we tell good stories and get to have a laugh along the way.”