Get To Know This Talented Actress

ITV’s The Bletchley Circle will kick off its second season’s stateside run courtesy of PBS later this week. By now you’ve probably heard about its untimely demise. It won’t be returning for a third season. But don’t let that stop you from getting to know more about one of its stars — Bletchley Circle star Julie Graham.

Graham plays Jean, one of the four crime-solving women on the 1950s set show. She is joined by Anna Maxwell Martin, Rachael Stirling, and Sophie Rundle. They are more than just meddling wives with too much time on their hands. They are former British code-breaking secret government agents. They worked in the shadows noting patterns and ultimately deciphered Germany’s Enigma machine, which aided in the ending of World War II. Having lent their talents to ending a war, they find it hard to fit into the 1950s archetypal female role and set about solving various crimes they stumble upon.

Graham has also appeared on several other shows and has been acting in England since 1986. If you don’t watch many series from across the pond, you likely haven’t seen her before The Bletchley Circle, so don’t feel too bad about not immediately recognizing her. But know this — she has serious range. She played a sex therapist in 2003’s Between the Sheets, a longing mother in 2008’s Survivors, and in 2010 was a police commander on The Bill and a soul-devouring alien in The Sarah Jane Adventures.

She’s also pretty impressive in real life as well.

She is big on charities

Much like her character on The Bletchley Circle, Graham takes an active approach to helping address various world ills. She uses her social media sites to draw attention to charities and petitions. She even helped lead a Twitter revolt when ITV announced that they were canceling The Bletchley Circle by retweeting fans’ outcries.

She once saved a life

Need more proof of her fearlessness? Graham once saw an older woman drowning and immediately jumped into action. Reflecting back on the incident, she said, “I ran into the sea when I could see this old lady had got into difficulty. I don’t know if that was brave — it was just my natural instinct.”

She loves the beach

Graham recently mentioned abandoning all attempts to shop on Saturdays, and how she’d much prefer to instead go out for a walk on the beach.

It’s also where she would like to spend the last 30 minutes of her life. She told Express, “I’d run down to the beach with the kids and the dog and have the happiest time I could before it all went horribly wrong…”