Ripper Street - Series 1

This is television drama as it should be – bold, entertaining, and with superb acting and gripping plots! Ripper Street, despite the slightly misleading cover photo, is not a ‘Who was Jack the Ripper’ tale but a fictionalised step back in time. Set in Whitechapel (but filmed in Dublin), the detectives are challenged with crimes taking place in the aftermath of the (real) Ripper murders.

Central characters are Matthew Macfadyen as Detective Inspector Ed Reid, Jerome Flynn as Detective Sergeant Bennett Drake, and American actor Adam Rothenberg as sexy daredevil Captain Homer Jackson, an expert former U.S. Army surgeon, and ex-sniffer dog for the Pinkerton Agency. As we find out throughout the eight episodes of Series 1, these key characters not only have criminals, murderers and even terrorists to battle, but their personal demons too.
On the female front, we get Amanda Hale as the somewhat melancholic Emily Reid (wife of Inspector Reid), and in contrast, MyAnna Buring as the crafty and brazen Long Susan – a brothel madam who shares a dubious past with Captain Jackson. Further we are introduced to Rose Erskine (Charlene McKenna), one of the girls working at Long Susan’s establishment. Rose attracts the attention of Captain Jackson and also of Sergeant Drake. These are the Ripper Street regulars, and as the series goes on we learn more about their pasts and their characteristics.

EPISODE 1 (‘I Need Light’) is particularly thrilling, as it begins with a Victorian tour guide who leads a group of sensation-hungry visitors on the 1889 equivalent of a Jack The Ripper tour. It’s not before long when they are in for an unexpected surprise – namely when the mutilated corpse of an unfortunate woman is discovered. It’s from then on that things get boxing clever for it’s not only us, the viewers, who are made to believe that bloody Jack is still at large, but the local police procedural in the East End, too. As it turns out, the butchered woman is not the latest edition to the Ripper’s reign of terror, but the victim of a 19th century snuff movie. You heard me! While it’s no secret that the allegedly oh so prude Victorians were no strangers to pornography, it comes as a bit of a revelation that snuff movies seemed to be in circulation. Disturbing stuff indeed, and quite daring as well, considering we are talking the pilot episode!

It gets better still in EPISODE 2 (‘In My Protection’), for our key characters get more fleshed out. We learn that M. Macfadyen’s Inspector Reid is a rather modern thinking man who always looks at everything and everyone from different angles before jumping to conclusions. The story is equally ace, concerning a Fagin-like character called Carmichael who manipulates his child gang to commit nasty things. In this episode we are introduced to Deborah Goren (Lucy Cohu), a Jewish orphanage governess for whom Inspector Reid develops a bit of a thing, after the strained relation to his wife gets too much. While a vigilante mob is hell-bent on lynching young Thomas, a member of Carmichael’s gang, Reid and his men are hell-bent on proving that it wasn’t him who killed an old toy maker.

EPISODE 3 (‘The King Came Calling’) concerns the wilful contamination of the local water and food with ‘King Cholera’! At first, the majority of the victims seem to be connected to a so-called ‘Moll House’ (these were 18th and 19th century establishments for cross-dressers and homosexuals). But when Reid’s wife falls ill with the disease, the police are at their wits end, as they cannot see any possible motive or connection to the other victims.

EPISODE 4 (‘The Good Of This City’) sees a progressive (speak: corrupt) councillor in the shape of Paul McGann do shady business with a leading psychiatrist specialising in lobotomy. It also involves two murdered children and a disturbed and pregnant teenage witness. The plot is almost a little too smart and complex for its own good. Then again, who could possibly argue if you have such distinguished actors as McGann and Anton Lesser amongst the cast!

In EPISODE 5 (‘The Weight Of One Man’s Heart’) Sergeant Drake falls hopelessly for prostitute Rose (who has ambitions to one day become an actress), while Captain Jackson falls ever more for drink and gambling. Focus of the plot is a military style robbery, as well as a certain Colonel Madoc Faulkner, who seeks ‘compensation’ for unjust treatment during the colonial Mahdist War by planning to rob the Royal Mint. To complicate things further, this requires the help of former colleague Drake.

EPISODE 6 (‘Tournament Of Shadows’) is a right old blast (quite literally), as Reid and his men are confronted with the consequences of the 1889 London Dock Strike, the killing of Jewish anarchist Joshua Bloom in a bomb explosion, and the trashing of the International Working Men’s Club. As if our various inspectors didn’t have their hands full already, they also have to fight against international terrorism led by a Russian spy. Cor blimey! Despite all the action, there’s room left to squeeze in a bit of personal drama. This mainly involves Captain Jackson’s shady past (the viewer is still kept in the dark), and Reid’s ongoing torment over the disappearance of his little daughter – a tragedy he blames himself for as much as his wife blames him.

We’re delving deeper into the past during EPISODE 7 (‘A Man Of My Company’). Here, the past comes to haunt Captain Jackson and Long Susan when some of the Pinkerton clan arrive in London, together with a shipping magnate, to complete the acquisition of a troubled London shipping line. However, one Pinkerton in particular, Frank Goodnight (Eduardo Ballerini), is more interested in tracking down Jackson than dealing with problems concerning the shipping line. While Jackson reckons it wise to go undercover for a while, the body of a murdered engineer is discovered. But it’s the murder of a hapless prostitute that sees the finger point at innocent Jackson – which is precisely what Goodnight, who is in fact the murderer, had intended! In then end, poor Jackson is placed under suspicion, albeit not by Inspector Reid but (stroke of genius and of course in-joke) by Inspector Abberline (sorry ladies, no cameo by Johnny Depp here).

The grand finale of Series 1 arrives with EPISODE 8 (‘What Use Our Work?’). With Reid convinced of Jackson’s innocence, but Abberline convinced that our Jack the lad is in fact Jack The Ripper, Leman Street’s much valued police surgeon faces the death penalty. Fate, however, intervenes when former prostitute Rose, who’s since been taken under the protective wing of Mrs. Reid, disappears after having answered a ‘Lonely Hearts’ ad. Reid and Drake suspect a human trafficking ring; with previous Ripper suspect Victor Silva as the ringleader. Silva also happens to be one of the alleged missing persons who were on the same boat as Reid’s little daughter when it sank. When they set a trap for Silva he gets killed, but they still manage to free Rose. Our heart goes out to Reid when a little girl is found in Silva’s house, but sadly she turns out not be his missing daughter. Meanwhile, Jackson is given the chance to prove that he is not the notorious Whitechapel killer, and is eventually set free by Abberline. That’s a good thing, as we get too see a little taster of Series 2, and Jackson and Co. are part of the cliffhanger.
Ripping good stuff, this! The quality of the production, the design and the photography are outstanding and transmit an authentic ‘Victorian lowbrow’ feel.
Can’t wait for the next episodes, which apparently we get to see in early 2014.

Meanwhile, Series 1 of the gorious BBC drama is now available on DVD and Blu-ray (3-disc set), with the bonus feature ‘Walking Whitechapel – Behind The Scenes Of Ripper Street’.