The latest true-crime series to hit our tellies is ITV’s new dramatisation of the five-year hunt for 1970s serial killer Peter Sutcliffe. A name that still induces a shudder in any Brit who remembers the dark days of the ’70s, and a killing spree that continues to haunt the country where it took place, the so-called ‘Yorkshire Ripper’ will reportedly fade into the background in a drama that focus on the women who fell victim to him.
‘The Long Shadow’ follows the BBC’s ‘The Sixth Commandment’ in promising a sensitive, unsensationalised examination of the circumstances that surrounded the horrifying crimes, sparing us the violence in favour of showing how poverty and lives of struggle put these women in Sutcliffe’s crosshairs, and how the police botched the investigation, duped by a hoaxer.
Is The Long Shadow based on a true story?
Yes, the drama cleaves very closely to real events, following Sutcliffe’s murder of 13 women and attacks on a further seven between 1975 and 1981. It’s based on ‘Wicked Beyond Belief: The Hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper’, an account of the biggest criminal manhunt in British history by investigative journalist Michael Bilton. That forensic reporting has been augmented by additional research and interviews with family members of the victims in Hijack writer George Kay’s adaptation.
Series director Lewis Arnold has some experience in bringing abhorrent criminals to our tellies: he directed ‘Des’, ITV’s serialised account of north London serial killer Dennis Nilsen.
Who are the real people portrayed in The Long Shadow?
Sutcliffe’s victims are depicted in the series, including his first victim, mother-of-four Wilma McCann (Gemma Laurie), and his second, Emily Jackson (‘Coronation Street’ actress Katherine Kelly). Daniel Mays plays Jackson’s grieving husband Sydney, guilt-stricken that his wife had been forced into sex work to help make ends meet. ‘The Selfish Giant’s Shaun Thomas is their son, Neil.
Who is playing DCS Dennis Hoban?
‘The Detectorists’ star Toby Jones is playing Detective Chief Superintendent Dennis Hoban, the Leeds detective who was initially in charge of the hunt for Sutcliffe. Jones, last seen side-kicking for Indy in ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’, charts a man who became obsessed with the case, until he was replaced by DCS Jim Hobson (Lee Ingleby).
David Morrissey plays Assistant Chief Constable George Oldfield, the cop who took over the case in 1977 and was thrown off the trail by a hoaxer dubbed ‘Wearside Jack’. Ill-health plagued both men, an indicator of the stress that came with trying to catch the serial killer.
Who plays Peter Sutcliffe?
A rarely-glimpsed presence in ‘The Long Shadow’, Sutcliffe is played by ‘Line of Duty’s Mark Stobbart. Don’t expect visceral recreations of the murders, or much reference to ‘the Yorkshire Ripper’ – a sobriquet the victims’ families hate – in a series that’s strenuous in its sensitivity.
Runs the official synopsis: ‘With people today holding to account the institutional foundations that foster misogyny, racism and violence against women, “The Long Shadow” will speak to the societal issues of the past while highlighting alarming parallels between these terrible crimes and tragic events in our more recent history.’
Where was The Long Shadow filmed?
The series was shot in West Yorkshire, with filming taking place in Leeds, Bradford, Wortley, Dewsbury, York and other locations. According to The Yorkshire Post, Leeds’ Western Flatts Park was used to stand in for the 700-acre Roundhay Park, the site of Sutcliffe’s assault on Marcella Claxton in 1976 and murder of Irene Richardson in 1977.
Leeds’ Millgarth Police Station, the centre of the police investigation in the late ’70s, has long since been demolished. Instead, Bulmer & Lumb’s dyehouse in Bradford was used as a stand-in for the police HQ.
How many episodes of The Long Shadow are there?
There are seven episodes, airing weekly on Mondays until the finale on November 6.
Where can I watch the TV series?
‘The Long Shadow’ is on ITV and its streaming service, ITVX, in the UK.
How was Peter Sutcliffe caught?
He was eventually arrested in Sheffield on January 2, 1981, for driving with false number plates, before confessing to the killings in custody. He was sentenced to 20 concurrent sentences of life imprisonment after a two-week trial.
What are critics saying?
‘I welcome the fact that Sutcliffe is treated as a minor character in this drama,’ writes Carol Midgley in The Times. ‘It is completely uninterested in him as a person.’ The Guardian calls it ‘a shattering serial killer drama that breaks all the rules’.
Not all the critics have been as glowing. ‘For all its professed sensitivity, this drama turns the most terrible crimes committed against women into mere entertainment,’ writes The New Statesman. ‘At its heart, “The Long Shadow” is fundamentally leering,’ agrees The Independent’s critic.
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