Woman of the Month: Susan Gray

Susan Gray from The Bletchley Circle

I’ll admit it: I had no idea who to choose for February’s Woman of the Month (though I have the rest of the year planned out in advance) and so ended up delving far back into the past, before I even had this blog, to a Tumblr post I wrote up in 2014 or thenabouts.

I also wrote a review for the show back then, and so am going to take a sneaky shortcut by paraphrasing what I wrote about Susan back then...

There is an Emma Thompson interview that has her talking about how proud she was to have rejected roles that required her (as the requisite female character) to continually tell the male lead: “don’t go out and do that brave thing; you’re needed here with me and the children!” In The Bletchley Circle, Susan Gray gets to be that male lead, with her husband playing the role of the spouse that stands around crying: “think of the children!”

The miniseries (which has since gotten a lacklustre second season and spin-off) is about a serial killer that targets young women... but the tedious inevitability of this is undermined by the fact that the investigators are four women who worked as codebreakers at Bletchley Park during World War II. Armed with resources and experience that help them to identify patterns and crack ciphers, the four friends commit themselves to doing what the police cannot, and bring the killer to justice.

Throughout all this, Susan Gray is their leader and commander, whose motivation is not just born out of concern for her fellow women (the first victim was a shopgirl that used to serve her at the local store) but because of a trope that isn’t usually afforded to female characters: a desire to recapture the Glory Days. As she tellingly says during their first meeting: “we can be useful again.”

Going from the excitement of the war years, in which her intellect helped save lives on a daily basis, to the doldrum routine of being a housewife and mother, has clearly taken its toll on Susan. From the ever-so subtle Sapphic vibes between herself and Millie, to the gleam in her eye that starts to shine once she and the others are on the case, it’s a fascinating look at a woman desperately trying to eke out a sense of meaningful purpose in her life.

She’s not entirely selfish, and yet she’s not entirely altruistic either. It’s a wonderful portrayal and performance, and the gift of the series is the way it highlights how women are uniquely positioned to help other women. As Jean says halfway through the case: “the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” She pauses. “Or good women.”