Red Riding | |
---|---|
Genre | |
Based on | Red Riding by David Peace |
Written by | Tony Grisoni |
Directed by | |
Starring | |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
No. of episodes | 3 |
Production | |
Executive producer | Andrew Eaton |
Producers |
|
Running time | 120 minutes |
Production company | Revolution Films |
Original release | |
Network | Channel 4 |
Release | 5 March – 19 March 2009 |
Red Riding is a British crime drama limited series written by Tony Grisoni and based on the book series of the same name by David Peace. The series comprises the novels Nineteen Seventy-Four (1999), Nineteen Seventy-Seven (2000), Nineteen Eighty (2001) and Nineteen Eighty-Three (2002), and the first, third, and fourth of these novels became three feature-length television episodes, Red Riding 1974, Red Riding 1980, and Red Riding 1983. They aired in the United Kingdom on Channel 4 beginning on 5 March 2009. The three episodes were released theatrically in the United States between 5 and 11 February 2010, by IFC Films. [1]
The context of the series uses fictionalized accounts of the investigation into the Yorkshire Ripper, a serial killer who stalked the Yorkshire area of England in the 1970s and 1980s. The name of the series is a reference to the murders and to their location, the historic county of Yorkshire being traditionally divided into three areas known as ridings.
The events take place between 1974 and 1983 and are set against the background of the Yorkshire Ripper killings. Set in Leeds, Bradford, Halifax, and the rest of West Yorkshire, [2] both books and films follow several recurring fictional characters through a bleak and violent world of police corruption and organised crime. The novels and television versions blend elements of fact, fiction, and conspiracy theory into a confection dubbed "Yorkshire Noir" by some critics. They offer a chronologically fractured narrative and do not present neat resolutions.
1974. Eddie Dunford (Andrew Garfield) is a cocky and naïve cub reporter for The Yorkshire Post . John Dawson (Sean Bean) is an unscrupulous local real estate developer, representing a group of investors. Their paths cross when Dunford investigates a series of murdered or missing schoolgirls, one of whom is found on Dawson's property, tortured, raped, and strangled. Dawson has used a combination of bribery (small ownership shares in a new shopping centre) and blackmail to secure the support of the local councillors, allowing him to purchase land and gain zoning approval to construct the shopping centre. He has also used the same bribes and blackmail with the newly formed West Yorkshire Metropolitan Police (WYMP), who harass the Romani people camping on the land he wants.
Dunford is spurred on by comments from people, including his reporter friend Barry Gannon (Anthony Flanagan), who warns of trouble then dies in an accident. An elusive male hustler, B.J. (Robert Sheehan), gives Dunford incriminating materials gathered by Gannon (some provided by Dawson) about local officials. During his investigation of Gannon's death, Dunford believes that he has found an ally in a reform-minded young police officer, Bob Fraser (Steven Robertson).
Dunford becomes romantically involved with Paula Garland (Rebecca Hall), mother of a missing girl. He learns from Paula that she is also sexually involved with Dawson, whom she has known all her life.
Dunford ignores corrupt WYMP officers' threats, complete with beatings, to lay off the story. Dunford convinces Paula to leave town with him, then briefly leaves her to deliver the Gannon materials to his police officer friend. When he returns, Paula is missing, so he storms a large party at Dawson's palatial home, celebrating the signing of the shopping centre deal, to demand Paula be returned.
Dunford is arrested by corrupt police officers, brutally beaten and psychologically tortured, then shown Paula's dead body. His supposed ally police officer, Fraser, has given the Gannon documents to Detective Superintendent Maurice Jobson (David Morrissey), who destroys them. The only remaining threat to the corrupt officials is that Dawson might talk, so police officers Tommy Douglas (Tony Mooney) and Bob Craven (Sean Harris) finish torturing Dunford, after Detective Chief Superintendent Bill Molloy (Warren Clarke) implies to him that Dawson killed Paula (the viewer never knows for sure), then give him a loaded handgun to deal with Dawson.
Bloody and frantic, Dunford seeks out Dawson, eventually finding him at his private club the Karachi. Dawson offers that he was "no angel" and that he had "a private weakness", implying that he is somehow connected to the murdered and missing girls. Dunford shoots Dawson dead and flees in his car, but reverses course when he finds himself chased by police cars. Dunford deliberately drives toward the pursuing police cars. A vision of Paula appears to him before his death in the ensuing collision.
In 1980, following public outcry over the failure to catch the Yorkshire Ripper, a "squeaky clean" Manchester police detective, Assistant Chief Constable Peter Hunter (Paddy Considine), is assigned to travel to West Yorkshire to head the WYMP investigation, much to the chagrin of the former head, Bill Molloy. Hunter had previously worked on the Karachi Club massacre, a case he had to abandon due to his wife Joan's miscarriage. One member of Hunter's new, hand-picked team is Helen Marshall (Maxine Peake), his former adulterous lover. The two cases – massacre and serial killings – are linked by Sergeant Bob Craven, who behaves in an openly hostile manner to the new team. Hunter correctly deduces that the Ripper inquiry is being side-tracked by the Wearside Jack tapes, and feels that the real Ripper has been interviewed and missed.
Hunter suspects that one of the Ripper's supposed victims, Clare Strachan, was not actually a Ripper victim. Hunter receives information on the murder from B.J., who is introduced through Reverend Martin Laws (Peter Mullan). B.J. claims that Strachan was a prostitute working for Eric Hall, a now-dead WYMP policeman. Hall's wife requests that Hunter meet her, and after visiting her house – where Reverend Laws is also present – she provides Hunter with proof of Hall's work as a pimp and pornographer, and that she gave Hall's documents to Jobson. Jobson claims to have lost the files. Meanwhile, the former affair between Hunter and Marshall threatens to reignite.
Hunter interrogates Detective Inspectors Dick Alderman (Shaun Dooley) and Jim Prentice (Chris Walker), who lets slip that the Strachan murder was probably committed by Hall, covered-up to look like a Ripper murder. Hunter also visits the now debilitated Tommy Douglas who later phones him demanding that they meet at his house. However, Hunter arrives to find Douglas and his daughter killed. Hunter is seriously intimidated when he receives covertly taken photos of himself and Marshall in compromising positions.
Near the end of Hunter's Christmas holiday, his Manchester house is burned down. Hunter then learns that his superiors have taken him off the Ripper case due to unspecified allegations of disciplinary breaches. He returns to West Yorkshire for a scheduled meeting with Jobson, but it appears, amid great fanfare, that the Yorkshire Ripper has been captured. The suspect confesses to all murders except that of Strachan, which he explicitly denies.
Hunter tracks down B.J. and forces him to reveal that five masked policemen burst into the Karachi Club minutes after Eddie Dunford's revenge on Dawson, killing all civilian witnesses and finding Bob Craven and Tommy Douglas wounded by Eddie. Strachan was a barmaid at the club; she and her friend B.J. witnessed the whole scene while hiding behind the bar, and were spotted by Chief Constable Harold Angus (Jim Carter) and Craven as they fled the premises. B.J. is, therefore, the only surviving witness to the Karachi Club massacre, which forces him to flee town. Hunter's dialogue with B.J. also implies that Craven was the murderer of Strachan as well as Douglas.
Hunter returns to Millgarth Station, Leeds, to reveal this new information to Detective Chief Superintendent John Nolan (Tony Pitts). Nolan takes Hunter downstairs to the cells where Hunter enters to see Craven slouched back in a chair, shot through his head. He realises that Nolan was one of the five who took part in the Karachi Club shootings, and Nolan quickly shoots him dead. Alderman and Prentice plant the gun, along with another, to make it look like Hunter and Craven shot each other. In a final scene, Joan Hunter is comforted by Reverend Laws at her husband's graveside.
In 1983, Detective Chief Superintendent Maurice Jobson (David Morrissey) is plagued by guilt over his participation in the corrupt activities within the WYMP. It is revealed that it was he who tipped off Dunford about the arson in the Roma camp near Hunslet, in which Jobson took part under pressure by Molloy and that the camp site had to be vacated to pursue a £100m joint investment by Dawson and the top echelons of the WYMP (including Jobson, Molloy, Angus, Alderman, Prentice, Nolan, Douglas and Craven) on a project for a shopping centre. It is also revealed that he knew about the innocence of Michael Myshkin (Daniel Mays), a learning disabled man who was convicted of the child murders in 1974. Jobson is aware of a conspiracy within the WYMP protecting high-profile figures, including Dawson, from public exposure. Jobson's pangs of conscience are prompted by his investigation into the recent disappearance of a young girl named Hazel Atkins, and lead him to open previous cases. He starts an intimate relationship with a medium (Saskia Reeves), who seems to be in possession of valuable information concerning the more recent crimes.
Meanwhile, John Piggott (Mark Addy), a solicitor and the son of a notorious WYMP officer, decides to explore the Atkins case himself. His inquiries lead him to Leonard Cole (Gerard Kearns), the young man who found the swan-stitched victim in 1974 and who is now being framed for Atkins' disappearance. Cole is tortured and murdered by the police, his death disguised as a suicide. Using information given by the learning disabled Myshkin, Piggott finds a mine shaft hidden in a pigeon shed near Laws's home, where it is revealed that a paedophile and child-murdering ring was run in West Yorkshire by Reverend Laws, and that clients of this ring included significant figures of society, among them businessmen such as Dawson and policemen such as Piggott's own father.
It is implied that only when children with known, stable local families were abducted did the criminal structure run the risk of being made public. This was the main reason for the constables' indirect assistance in Dawson's demise, thereby solving the "two little problems" referred to by Angus (a nosy young journalist and a businessman with a dark secret) at the same time without compromising their million-pound investment in the commercial centre. It is clear that, at least after 1974, Laws counted on the complicity and even direct collaboration of high-ranking officials in the WYMP, although the extent of his grip on the police, the reasons why he did not share a fate similar to Dawson's and the degree of knowledge WYMP brass had of his and Dawson's activities prior to 1974 are left open to speculation.
Finally, it is also revealed that B.J. was the first child abducted by this criminal enterprise, and perhaps the only one who survived. B.J. ends up returning to Laws's home to enact revenge, but in the last moment finds himself unable to do so due to Laws's mind-numbing, domineering influence on him. Laws restrains B.J. and is about to use an electric drill on his head when Jobson appears with a shotgun and shoots the reverend three times, killing him. He then opens the hidden entrance to the mine shaft just in time for Piggott to emerge from it with a still-living Hazel Atkins in his arms. B.J. flees southward by train, reflecting on his upbringing, his experiences, and his "escape" from the past of West Yorkshire. Thus, three characters – Jobson, Piggott, and B.J. – achieve some measure of redemption in the end.
Character | 1974 | 1980 | 1983 |
---|---|---|---|
DI Dick Alderman | Shaun Dooley | ||
CC Harold Angus | |||
Hazel Atkins | Tamsin Mitchell | ||
Mr Atkins | Andrew Cryer | ||
Bet | Lynn Roden | ||
BJ (older) | Robert Sheehan | ||
BJ (younger) | James Ainsworth | ||
Paul Booker | Ian Mercer | Ian Mercer | |
Sgt John Chain | James Weaver | ||
Leonard Cole | Gerard Kearns | Gerard Kearns | |
Mary Cole | Cara Seymour | Cara Seymour | |
Sgt/DSupt Bob Craven | Sean Harris | ||
John Dawson | Sean Bean | Sean Bean | |
Marjorie Dawson | Cathryn Bradshaw | ||
Karen Douglas | Charlotte James | ||
Sharon Douglas | Michelle Holmes | ||
PC Tommy Douglas | Tony Mooney | ||
Eddie Dunford | Andrew Garfield | ||
Susan Dunford | Rachel Jane Allen | ||
Uncle Eric | Graham Walker | ||
HMIC Philip Evans | James Fox | ||
Sgt Bob Fraser | Steven Robertson | Steven Robertson | |
Barry Gannon | Anthony Flanagan | ||
Paula Garland | Rebecca Hall | ||
Gaz | Danny Cunningham | ||
George Greaves | Berwick Kaler | ||
Bill Hadley | John Henshaw | John Henshaw | |
Elizabeth Hall | Julia Ford | ||
Joan Hunter | Lesley Sharp | ||
ACC Peter Hunter | Paddy Considine | ||
Judith Jobson | Lisa Howard | ||
DSupt/DCS Maurice Jobson | David Morrissey | ||
Jim Kelly | Gary Whittaker | ||
Mr Kemplay | Stewart Ross | ||
Mrs Kemplay | Jennifer Hennessy | ||
Rev Martin Laws | Peter Mullan | ||
Clive McGuiness | Hilton McRae | ||
HMCIC Sir John Marsden | David Calder | ||
DC Helen Marshall | Maxine Peake | ||
DCS/ACC Bill Molloy | Warren Clarke | ||
Michael Myshkin | Daniel Mays | Daniel Mays | |
Mrs Myshkin | Beatrice Kelley | ||
DCS John Nolan | Tony Pitts | ||
John Piggott | Mark Addy | ||
DI Jim Prentice | |||
Susan Ridyard | Emily Millicent Mott | ||
CC Clement Smith | Ron Cook | ||
Clare Strachan | Kelly Freemantle | ||
Peter Sutcliffe | Joseph Mawle | ||
Kathryn Tyler | Michelle Dockery | Michelle Dockery | |
Steph | Katherine Vasey | ||
Tessa | Catherine Tyldesley | ||
Michael Warren | Nicholas Woodeson | ||
Jack Whitehead | Eddie Marsan | ||
Aunt Win | Rita May | ||
Mandy Wymer | Saskia Reeves | ||
On 8 and 10 September 2008 the cast and crew were spotted filming at the Connaught Rooms on Manningham Lane, and a Victorian house on the corner of Selbourne Mount and North Park Road, just across the road from Cartwright Hall in Lister Park, Manningham, Bradford, West Yorkshire, which was also used. [3] [4] [5] On 5 October Sean Bean, Paddy Considine, Jim Carter, Warren Clarke, Chris Walker, Sean Harris and James Weaver were spotted filming at the Connaught Rooms again, which was used multiple more times in the following weeks. [6] The cast and crew were later spotted filming in Little Germany, Bradford. [7] [8] [9] Filming also took place at the former Presbyterian Church on 1 Simes Street, Bradford, which was being used as the Koh-I-Noor Indian restaurant at the time, was used as The Karachi Club in the trilogy. [10] The former Bradford Central Police Station on The Tyrls in Bradford city centre, which has since been demolished and built over with Bradford City Park, was also used. [11]
Other locations included Seacroft Hospital and Brudenell Social Club in Leeds, West Yorkshire. [12] The Brudenell was also used as The Karachi Club in the trilogy. HM Prison Leeds, Cookridge Hospital, and The Yorkshire Post's Wellington Street building which was demolished in 2014, in Leeds were also used. [13]
Filming also took place at Arden Road Social Club in Halifax, West Yorkshire, [14] the National Coal Mining Museum for England in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, [13] and Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. [15]
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (July 2012) |
The television trailers for all three Red Riding episodes bore the tagline "Based on True Events". Nevertheless, none of the characters, nor the murder victims, bear the names of real people and only a few have obvious real-life models.
The wrongful prosecution and imprisonment of the character Michael Myshkin is a clear parallel to the real-life case of Stefan Kiszko, falsely accused of and convicted for the killing of 11-year-old Lesley Molseed in 1975. He was later proved innocent.
The mission and subsequent official vilification of Assistant Chief Constable Peter Hunter in Red Riding 1980 are strongly reminiscent of the case of John Stalker, a real life Deputy Chief Constable of the Greater Manchester Police who headed an investigation into the shooting of suspected members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army in 1982.
The films won The TV Dagger at the 2009 Crime Thriller Awards. [16] At the 2010 British Academy Television Awards, the series was nominated for Best Drama Serial while Rebecca Hall won Best Supporting Actress. [17]
Columbia Pictures acquired the rights to adapt the novels and films into a theatrical film. The studio was negotiating with Ridley Scott in October 2009 to direct. [18]
The trilogy was released on DVD and Blu-ray in the United States by IFC Films on 5 February 2010. [19]
The series has been aired by Danish public broadcaster DR1 on two occasions under the title Pigen med den røde hætte (The Girl with the Red Cap). It has also been aired by SVT in Sweden, by Rai 4 in Italy, [20] by ARD in Germany, [21] and by SBS in Australia. [22]
Bingley is a market town and civil parish in the metropolitan borough of the City of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. It is sited on the River Aire and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. The town had a population of 18,040 at the 2021 Census.
Saltaire is a Victorian model village near Shipley, West Yorkshire, England, situated between the River Aire, the railway, and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. Salts Mill and the houses were built by Titus Salt between 1851 and 1871 to allow his workers to live in better conditions than the slums of Bradford. The mill ceased production in 1986, and was converted into a multifunctional location with an art gallery, restaurants, and the headquarters of a technology company. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and on the European Route of Industrial Heritage.
Keighley is a market town and a civil parish in the City of Bradford Borough of West Yorkshire, England. It is the second largest settlement in the borough, after Bradford.
Peter William Sutcliffe, also known as Peter Coonan, was an English serial killer who was convicted of murdering thirteen women and attempting to murder seven others between 1975 and 1980. He was dubbed in press reports as the Yorkshire Ripper, an allusion to the Victorian serial killer Jack the Ripper. Sutcliffe was sentenced to twenty concurrent sentences of life imprisonment, which were converted to a whole life order in 2010. Two of his murders took place in Manchester; all the others took place in West Yorkshire. Criminal psychologist David Holmes characterised Sutcliffe as being an "extremely callous, sexually sadistic serial killer."
Silsden is a town and civil parish in the City of Bradford in West Yorkshire, England, on the River Aire and Leeds and Liverpool Canal between Keighley and Skipton, which had a population of 8,390 at the 2021 Census. The parish includes the hamlet of Brunthwaite.
David Peace is an English writer. Best known for his UK-set novels Red Riding Quartet (1999–2002), GB84 (2004), The Damned Utd (2006), and Red or Dead (2013), Peace was named one of the Best of Young British Novelists by Granta in their 2003 list. His books often deal with themes of mental breakdown or derangement in the face of extreme circumstances. In an interview with David Mitchell, he stated: "I was drawn to writing about individuals and societies in moments that are often extreme, and often at times of defeat, be they personal or broader, or both. I believe that in such moments, during such times, in how we react and how we live, we learn who we truly are, for better or worse."
Paul David Hudson is an English weather presenter for BBC Yorkshire and BBC Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. Hudson was born and raised in Keighley, West Yorkshire. He was made an Honorary Fellow of Bradford College in 2014.
Giggleswick, a village and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England, lies on the B6480 road, less than 1 mile (1.6 km) north-west of the town of Settle and divided from it by the River Ribble. It is the site of Giggleswick School. The village belonged to the West Riding of Yorkshire until 1974.
West Yorkshire Police, formerly the West Yorkshire Metropolitan Police, is the territorial police force responsible for policing the metropolitan county of West Yorkshire, England. It is the fourth largest territorial police force in England and Wales by number of officers.
The Brides in the Bath is a 2003 television film by Yorkshire Television for ITV, based on the life and trial of British serial killer and bigamist George Joseph Smith, the "Brides in the Bath Murderer". Martin Kemp plays the role of Smith, and Richard Griffiths plays barrister Sir Edward Marshall-Hall. The film was directed by Harry Bradbeer, and written by Glenn Chandler.
Holme Wood or Holmewood is a housing estate in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England.
Kris Welham is an English rugby league footballer who plays as a centre for Sheffield Eagles in the RFL Championship and the England Knights at international level.
The Ex-Mrs. Bradford is a 1936 American comedy mystery film. William Powell and Jean Arthur star as a divorced couple who investigate a murder at a racetrack. This was the last film directed by Stephen Roberts before his death from a heart attack.
Godfrey Alexander Oldfield, known as George Oldfield, was a British police detective who finished his career as an Assistant Chief Constable with West Yorkshire Police. He is known for leading inquiries by the force into major crimes, including the M62 coach bombing and the 'Yorkshire Ripper' series of murders; the latter inquiry put great strain on his health. In recent years Oldfield's reputation has come under scrutiny, particularly concerning his two major cases, and has resulted in allegations of corruption and incompetence.
Daniel Mays is an English actor having had television roles in EastEnders (2000), Rehab (2005), Red Riding (2008), Ashes to Ashes (2010), Outcasts (2011), Mrs Biggs, Line of Duty, Des and White Lines (2020), and film roles in Pearl Harbor (2001), All or Nothing (2002), Vera Drake (2004), Shifty, Made in Dagenham, Byzantium (2012), and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016).
Christopher Adam Gregg is a former Detective Chief Superintendent and was head of West Yorkshire Police's Homicide and Major Enquiry Team (HMET). Gregg joined the force in 1974 and as a constable was put on front-line duties in the Yorkshire Ripper inquiry in the Helen Rytka murder incident room. He left the force in 2008 to take up a senior position as an adviser to a forensic service provider company, LGC Forensics. In 2010 Gregg, together with Lord Stevens and Dr Angela Gallop, founded Axiom International Limited.
Bradford is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It became a municipal borough in 1847, received a city charter in 1897 and, since the 1974 reform, the city status has belonged to the larger City of Bradford metropolitan borough. It had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 census, making it the second-largest subdivision of the West Yorkshire Built-up Area after Leeds, which is approximately 9 miles (14 km) to the east. The borough had a population of 552,644, making it the 9th most populous district in England.
Mark Andrew Rowntree is a British spree killer who murdered four people in random knife attacks over a period of eight days in West Yorkshire, England, in 1975 and 1976.
The murder ofCarol Wilkinson, a young woman from Bradford, West Yorkshire occurred on 10 October 1977. Anthony Steel spent 19 years in prison for the murder, before having his conviction quashed in 2003. Steel died shortly after in 2007 at the age of 52.
Dalton Mills is a 19th-century Grade II* Victorian former textile mill located in Keighley, West Yorkshire, England. It was roughly 45,681 sq ft (4,243.9 m2) in size. Previously used as a set for Peaky Blinders, it was once claimed to be the largest textile mill in Yorkshire, massing over 2,000 employees. The internal parts of the building were destroyed by a large fire that broke out on 3 March 2022.