TV Preview – Whitechapel (ITV1)
A Tense Thriller about a Jack the Ripper Copycat in Modern London
Jan 22, 2009
It’s hard to imagine that in a time of constant surveillance with “Big Brother” watching our every move and technology that allows the police to match DNA from just a single strand of hair that anybody would be able to evade capture and commit serial murders.
Not every system is infallible though and Whitechapel proves this rule by evolving the most evasive British killer of them all – Jack the Ripper – in a new thriller set in modern times where a series of bloody and impossible crimes suggest someone is carrying out copycat the Ripper murders 120 years after said killer first struck.
Ex-Spook Rupert Penry-Jones and “local” Steve Pemberton
This new ITV thriller stars former Spook Rupert Penry-Jones, The Curse of Steptoe and Son lead Phil Davis and League of Gentlemen alumni Steve Pemberton and looks to be as dark and atmospheric as the BBC’s wonderfully disturbing and hit-and-miss series Messiah.
They play the main cops Joseph Chandler (Penry-Jones), a fast-tracked DI on his first big murder case; Ray Miles (Davis), who is on his way to retirement, and Edward Buchan (Pemberton), an expert on myths and legends behind unexplained or violent deaths. But as ITV usually stray away from gore and general unpleasant nastiness, Jeremy Kyle not included, it may not be as bloody as hoped.
One Man's Dark Descent
The first episode starts with the death of a young woman who had her throat cut in the yard of a Board School. Thinking it a simple matter of “the husband did it” Chandler, the new boy in the Whitechapel force, confidently follows his instinct, only to discover that the suspect has a solid alibi.
Not until he learns that her body was almost gutted and a visit from Ripperologist Buchan does he realise that the case appears to share many similarities with the murder of Mary Ann Nichols in 1888. And his dark descent continues from there.
Ben Court, who co-wrote the drama with Caroline Ip, said: “We have always had a broad interest in serial killers. Jack the Ripper stood out because the case is unsolved and we thought it would be interesting to 're-investigate' the crimes from a modern perspective.”
Whitechapel’s Re-investigation of Jack the Ripper
The Jack the Ripper killings remain as one of the most famous unsolved murders and the first serial murder to be used by the media of the day to sell more newspapers (which has taken new life in the age of red top tabloids). Police of the day and of now are still baffled about the identity of the man responsible and the real reason behind his spree.
That hasn’t stopped endless theories and debates, some of which were the basis of this show, but the writers stated that they avoided claims of a solution and have worked on their own conclusion. However, it’s still a case that fascinates people and as with Demons, Whitechapel shows that ITV can’t get enough of the updating of old stories so that the audience of today with their iPods and internet on their mobile phones can understand.
Either way it's an ITV drama that looks interesting rather than a tacky, clumsy wannabe comedy and might just be the compelling viewing it appears to be.
Whitechapel is produced by Marcus Wilson (Life on Mars), written by Ben Court and Caroline Ip (Marian Again) and directed by SJ Clarkson (Life on Mars).
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