Ripper Street

Ripper Street

Ripper Street is the latest in line to take a swing at the legend of London’s most famous unpunished serial killer, but this time, it’s not trying to pin the crown on anyone. For now.

Instead, we pick up the story of London six months after the last of the Ripper killings, and join H Division, a group in charge of keeping the East End clean and getting it back to a state of tranquillity. Making ice cubes in the Sahara would be easier.

Our attention’s pulled to a trio of detectives, Edmund Reid, Bennet Drake and Homer Jackson who have been tasked with keeping their 1 ¼ mile patch of London and it’s 67,000 residents on the straight and narrow. Again, a rather difficult job.

The show splits it’s time between the three men at the core dealing with the seedy belly of London (be that bare knuckle boxing or the burgeoning pornographic industry) and Reid’s pursuit of using new-fangled forensics in the quest for justice.

With Matthew Macfayden and Jerome Flynn at the heart of the show though, the BBC are assured great performances from them, while we can’t wait to see the first UK outing for American actor Adam Rothenberg as the third of our trio of detectives.

With MyAnna Buring in attendance too (we’re telling you, she’s taking over the joint over here) it’s got a fantastic cast at the centre of it.

While the TV schedules have an overabundance of crime shows, Ripper Street is a refreshing take on the genre, mixing in a period element with the hard boiled cop dramas we’ve come to expect. While the show may be a little ham-fisted at points about its time period, it’s a great backdrop to the action.

Here’s hoping it’s more Sherlock Holmes than From Hell in the long run.

 

Ripper Street starts tonight on BBC One

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