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Jack the Ripper | |
---|---|
Created by | Troy Kennedy Martin Elwyn Jones |
Written by | Elwyn Jones John Lloyd |
Starring | Stratford Johns Frank Windsor |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
No. of series | 1 |
No. of episodes | 6 |
Production | |
Running time | 50 minutes |
Release | |
Original network | BBC1 |
Original release | 13 July – 17 August 1973 |
Jack the Ripper is a six-part BBC police procedural made in 1973, in which the case of the Jack the Ripper murders is reopened and analysed by Detective Chief Superintendents Barlow and Watt (Stratford Johns and Frank Windsor, respectively). These characters were hugely popular with UK TV viewers at the time from their appearances on the long-running police series Z-Cars and its sequels Softly, Softly and Barlow at Large . The programme was presented partly as a discussion between the two principals in the present day, interspersed with dramatised-documentary scenes set in the 19th century. The series discusses suspects and conspiracies, but concludes there is insufficient evidence to determine who was Jack the Ripper. The experiment was seen to be a success, and the formula was repeated in 1976 with Second Verdict , in which Barlow and Watt cast their gaze over miscarriages of justice and unsolved mysteries from the past.
No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date |
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1 | "The First Two" [1] | Leonard Lewis | Elwyn Jones and John Lloyd | 13 July 1973 |
2 | "Double Event" [2] | Gilchrist Calder | Elwyn Jones and John Lloyd | 20 July 1973 |
3 | "Butchery" [3] | David Wickes | Elwyn Jones and John Lloyd | 27 July 1973 |
4 | "Panic" [4] | Leonard Lewis | Elwyn Jones and John Lloyd | 3 August 1973 |
5 | "Suspects" [5] | Gilchrist Calder | Elwyn Jones and John Lloyd | 10 August 1973 |
6 | "The Highest in the Land?" [6] | David Wickes | Elwyn Jones and John Lloyd | 17 August 1973 |
Jack the Ripper was made available for syndication. It was first distributed by 20th Century-Fox Television, in cooperation with Metromedia. [7]
When televised in the United States, it featured Sebastian Cabot as host-narrator, and was broadcast variably using the title The Whitechapel Murders or the original Jack the Ripper. [8] [9]
The series was also adapted into a book titled The Ripper File authored by series script writers Elwyn Jones and John Lloyd. [10] The 1979 film Murder by Decree , starring Christopher Plummer as Sherlock Holmes investigating the Whitechapel murders, was based on The Ripper File. [11]
Whitechapel is a district in East London and the future administrative centre of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is a part of the East End of London, 3.4 miles (5.5 km) east of Charing Cross. It was part of the ancient parish of Stepney, Middlesex. It was split off as a separate parish in the 14th century. It became part of the County of London in 1889 and Greater London in 1965. Because the area is close to the London Docklands and east of the City of London, it has been a popular place for immigrants and the working class.
Murder by Decree is a 1979 mystery thriller film directed by Bob Clark. It features the Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson characters created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who are embroiled in the investigation surrounding the real-life 1888 Whitechapel murders committed by "Jack the Ripper". Christopher Plummer plays Holmes and James Mason plays Watson. Though it features a similar premise, it is somewhat different in tone and result to A Study in Terror. It is loosely based on The Ripper File by Elwyn Jones and John Lloyd.
Z-Cars or Z Cars is a British television police procedural series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby, near Liverpool. Produced by the BBC, it debuted in January 1962 and ran until September 1978.
Annie Chapman was the second canonical victim of the notorious unidentified serial killer Jack the Ripper, who killed and mutilated a minimum of five women in the Whitechapel and Spitalfields districts of London from late August to early November 1888.
Mary Ann "Polly" Nichols was the first canonical victim of the unidentified serial killer known as Jack the Ripper, who is believed to have murdered and mutilated at least five women in the Whitechapel and Spitalfields districts of London from late August to early November 1888.
Emma Elizabeth Smith was a prostitute and murder victim of mysterious origins in late-19th century London. Her killing was the first of the Whitechapel murders, and it is possible she was a victim of the serial killer known as Jack the Ripper, though this is considered unlikely by most modern authors.
A series of murders that took place in the East End of London from August to November 1888 was blamed on an unidentified assailant who was nicknamed Jack the Ripper. Since that time, the identity of the killer or killers has been widely debated, and over 100 Jack the Ripper suspects have been named. Though many theories have been advanced, experts find none widely persuasive, and some are hardly taken seriously at all. Due to the extensive time interval since the murders, the killer will likely never be identified despite ongoing speculation as to his identity.
The "From Hell" letter was a letter sent alongside half of a preserved human kidney to the chairman of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, George Lusk, in October 1888. The author of this letter claimed to be the unidentified serial killer known as Jack the Ripper, who had murdered and mutilated at least four women in the Whitechapel and Spitalfields districts of London in the two months prior to Lusk receiving this letter, and whose vigilance committee Lusk led in community efforts to assist police in efforts to identify and apprehend the perpetrator.
Elizabeth "Long Liz" Stride is believed to have been the third victim of the unidentified serial killer known as Jack the Ripper, who killed and mutilated at least five women in the Whitechapel and Spitalfields districts of London from late August to early November 1888.
Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution is a book written by Stephen Knight first published in 1976. It proposed a solution to five murders in Victorian London that were blamed on an unidentified serial killer known as "Jack the Ripper".
Aaron Kosminski was a Polish barber and hairdresser, and suspect in the Jack the Ripper case.
Elwyn John Jones was a Welsh television writer and producer, who co-created the police drama series Z-Cars for BBC Television in 1962. Later, he devised Softly, Softly (1966–69), Softly, Softly: Taskforce (1969–76), Barlow at Large/Barlow, Jack the Ripper (1973) and Second Verdict (1976). A prolific television drama writer from the early 1960s until the late 1970s; from 1963 to 1966, he was Head of Drama (Series) at the BBC, under Head of Drama Group Sydney Newman, the first person to hold that post after Newman divided the drama group into Series, Serials and Plays divisions.
Softly, Softly is a British television police procedural series produced by the BBC and screened on BBC 1 from January 1966. It was created as a spin-off from the series Z-Cars, which ended its fifth series run in December 1965. The series took its name from the proverb "Softly, softly, catchee monkey", the motto of Lancashire Constabulary Training School.
Jack the Ripper, the notorious serial killer who terrorized Whitechapel in 1888, features in works of fiction ranging from gothic novels published at the time of the murders to modern motion pictures, televised dramas and video games.
The Whitechapel Vigilance Committee was a group of local volunteers who patrolled the streets of London's Whitechapel District during the period of the Whitechapel murders of 1888. The volunteers cruised mainly at night, assisting police in the search of the unknown murderer known as the "Whitechapel Murderer", "Leather Apron" and, latterly, "Jack the Ripper".
Jack the Ripper was an unidentified serial killer active in the impoverished districts in and around Whitechapel in the East End of London in 1888. In both criminal case files and the contemporary journalistic accounts, the killer was called the Whitechapel Murderer and Leather Apron.
Softly, Softly: Task Force is a police procedural series which ran on BBC 1 from 1969 to 1976. It was a revamp of Softly, Softly, itself a spin-off from Z-Cars. The change was made partly to coincide with the coming of colour broadcasting to the BBC's main channel BBC1. The programme was due to be called simply Task Force, but reluctant to sacrifice a much-loved brand the BBC compromised this so it became Softly, Softly: Task Force.
Second Verdict is a six-part BBC television series from 1976. It combines the genres of police procedural and docudrama, with dramatised documentaries in which classic criminal cases and unsolved crimes from history were re-appraised by fictional police officers. In Second Verdict, Stratford Johns and Frank Windsor reprised for a final time their double-act as Detective Chief Superintendents Barlow and Watt, hugely popular with TV audiences from the long-running series Z-Cars, Softly, Softly and Barlow at Large. Second Verdict built on the formula of their 1973 series Jack the Ripper in which dramatised documentary was drawn together with a discussion between the two police officers which formed the narrative. Second Verdict also allowed for some location filming and, when the case being re-appraised was within living memory, interviews with real witnesses.
The Whitechapel murders were committed in or near the largely impoverished Whitechapel district in the East End of London between 3 April 1888 and 13 February 1891. At various points some or all of these eleven unsolved murders of women have been ascribed to the notorious unidentified serial killer known as Jack the Ripper.
Jack the Ripper is a 1988 Anglo-American co-production by Thames Television and CBS television film drama based on the notorious Jack the Ripper murder spree in Victorian London. It was first broadcast on ITV.
Based on 'The Ripper File' by John Lloyd and Elwyn Jones