WPC 56

The beautiful Jennie Jacques plays the lead role of WPC Gina Dawson. Although the series revolves around her there are many intelligently woven threads in the plot that give all the other players a good chunk of airtime, too. None of them disappoint, either. Things wind up nicely after five episodes but there's still a little wriggle room for another series and I, for one, hope that their is.

After all the time and trouble that the producers, cast and crew went to, to get this right I'm surprised that this was aired just after lunch during the week where probably not many people got the chance to see it. That was an extremely irresponsible decision by the faceless suits at the beeb who think they know something about television.

The story is well paced and intelligently laid out. The details, language and props were first rate and appropriate. The cast, photography and script were also all top notch. This is intelligent television drama... something the Americans are becoming good at and which we Brits have rather lost our way on.

Much, much better than that dreadful garbage, Prime suspect.

Only seen the first episode which is on Acorn. Look forward to the rest of the series. Can relate to the WPC because not much changed in the 60's or 70's. The sexism and harassment was still up and running and it didn't matter what our position was, we still had to make tea. I'm disappointed with the "romance" between the detective and the constable. A bit contrived in my mind. That's why the Bill was so popular, at the beginning we thought we were watching a documentary. The characters are believable and story lines watchable. Hope it continues.

Jennie Jacques portrays all the ambitions, fears & acceptances of young women in 1956 England. I let myself go when watching the case solving, but I forget the plot when the camera is focused on her. I literally have to shake my head at times to follow the story.

I really like the scenes where she's not on camera. But from the first 5 minutes of episode one, she's the portrayed character I want to see next.

Not her fault, but Jennie Jacques' eyes are too magnetic. That said, the little known supporting cast are drawn from the deep well of British acting talent. This was Britain in 1956.

That I found Jennie Jacques' beauty distracting should not deter others from giving this a first viewing. She did what the writers & director dictated, & her performance is worthy of high praise.

I mark this down because of formulaic writing, but I mark it up because of the ensemble performances.

This is series worthy of watching.

It's an excellent series, one that went out on BBC1 in the afternoons, presumably many missed it, I certainly did, and that's a shame. The same sort of vibe as Father Brown, we certainly have the smart Detective and the Sid character, but there is a lot more to this than just light entertainment.

It does a good job of presenting stories with attitudes prevalent at the time, so expect sexist and homophobic attitudes, made at a time when The BBC wasn't afraid to show these attitudes, not just pretend they didn't exist.

Very nicely made, look out for terrific clothes, sets and cars, in particular a sublime red and white Consul in series two's finale.

The series struggled to retain its cast members, changes were rife, but they always managed to get it spot on. Jennie Jacques is great, the standout for me is Charles De'Ath, the guy is superb as Fenton.

A shame it ended after three series, it's great though, 8/10.

Just as you're settling in to a series the BBC pull the plug, no reason given, no apology to the legions of fans who loved the show.

They have done it many times over the years, sometimes leaving you in suspense as to what happened next with a cliff hanger. There was a thread not tied up at the end of this serious with the obnoxious. Ass chief constable, I would have liked to see what happened to him.

This joins the likes of Survivors (2008), Tripods, Home Fires and Invasion Earth. The BBC are funded by us but never listen to what we have to say. Dr Who a case in point.

It's been gone too long now to bring it back, which is a shame.