Whitechapel | |
---|---|
First series titlecard | |
Genre | Police procedural Thriller [1] |
Written by | Ben Court Caroline Ip |
Directed by | S.J. Clarkson David Evans John Strickland Richard Clark Jon East Daniel Nettheim |
Starring | Rupert Penry-Jones Phil Davis Steve Pemberton |
Composer | Ruth Barrett |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language | English |
No. of series | 4 |
No. of episodes | 18 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Executive producer | Sally Woodward Gentle |
Producers | Marcus Wilson David Boulter |
Cinematography | Balazs Bolygo Kieran McGuigan |
Editors | Liana Del Giudice Anthony Combes |
Running time | 45 minutes (excluding adverts) |
Production company | Carnival Films |
Original release | |
Network | ITV |
Release | 2 February 2009 – 9 October 2013 |
Whitechapel is a British police procedural, produced by Carnival Films and distributed by BBC Worldwide, [1] [2] in which detectives in London's Whitechapel district deal with murders which replicated historical crimes. The first series was broadcast in the UK on 2 February 2009 and depicted the search for a modern copycat killer replicating the murders of Jack the Ripper.
A second series was commissioned by ITV in September 2009 with the focus on the Kray twins. The first episode of this second series was broadcast on 11 October 2010. [3]
A third series was commissioned by ITV in March 2011, which was extended to six episodes as three two-part stories. [4]
The first and second series were broadcast in the United States on six consecutive Wednesday evenings beginning 26 October 2011 on the BBC America cable network. The third was broadcast in the US starting on Wednesday 28 March 2012, also on BBC America. [5]
On 24 September 2012, ITV renewed Whitechapel for a fourth and final series consisting of six episodes. The first episode was broadcast on 4 September 2013. [6]
On 16 November 2013, lead actor Rupert Penry-Jones confirmed that ITV had decided not to recommission the show. [7]
The names of some of the characters are drawn from real people associated with the Whitechapel murders case committed by Jack the Ripper. Joseph Chandler was a Police Inspector who was the first officer to arrive at the scene of the death of Annie Chapman. Edward Buchan was a contemporary suspect for the murders who committed suicide on the day of Mary Jane Kelly's funeral. [8] Mary Bousfield was Martha Tabram's landlady. [9] John McCormack was the lover of suspected ripper victim Alice McKenzie. [10] A Dr Llewellyn was called to the scene of the murder of Mary Ann Nichols. [11] The Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, and head of the Criminal Investigation Department at the time of the murders was named Robert Anderson, he was the highest ranking officer to work on the cases. [12] John Fitzgerald confessed to murder of Annie Chapman which was later proved untrue. [13]
Guest starring;
Series one and two were broadcast as a single six-episode season on BBC America, and were subsequently released on DVD as such. For the BBC America DVD release, the two stories were given individual titles, with series one being entitled: The Walk of Terror (Parts 1–3) respectively.[ citation needed ]
Episode | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original airdate | Viewers (millions) | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | "Part 1" | S. J. Clarkson | Ben Court & Caroline Ip | 2 February 2009 | 9.26 | |
As the final step before promotion, fast-tracker DI Joseph Chandler is posted to Whitechapel by Commander Anderson to lead the investigation into the murder of a woman. However, the case does not turn out as straightforward as Chandler had hoped. The victim, Cathy Lane, is found by CSO Mary Bousfield, bleeding to death with her throat cut in the yard of a Board School, with the killer watching only a short distance away. The Whitechapel squad—front-line, hard-bitten DS Ray Miles and DCs Kent, McCormack, Sanders and Fitzgerald—arrive at the scene after Cathy is pronounced dead and are less than pleased to hear of the imminent arrival of yet another new DI, a 'plastic', a 'paper policeman' who has no idea what he is doing. Chandler arrives, armed with the knowledge of his courses and text books, ready to solve his first murder. | ||||||
2 | "Part 2" | S. J. Clarkson | Ben Court & Caroline Ip | 9 February 2009 | 8.20 | |
As it is clear this case is no longer a straightforward murder that Chandler can wrap up quickly, he is summoned to see Commander Anderson and his superiors who are very concerned that London may have a Jack the Ripper copycat – especially the impact of this leaking to the press. They tell Chandler he is on his own and that he must solve this case quickly. Having earned a small degree of grudging respect, Chandler leads his squad as they begin researching Jack the Ripper, reading books and looking at DVDs, in an attempt to discover who the new Ripper may be. It is a race against time before he strikes again and they have nothing to go on, except what history tells them, and matters are not helped when one of the team, trying to oust Chandler, leaks details of the case to the press. | ||||||
3 | "Part 3" | S. J. Clarkson | Ben Court & Caroline Ip | 16 February 2009 | 8.72 | |
Chandler has a close encounter with the murderous impostor but fails to catch or follow him; only the timely appearance of a passer-by allows him to escape with his life. His attacker's home, however contains enough clues for the final hunt to begin after the team find the Ripper's apartment. There, finding out that he assumed numerous disguises throughout their case to undermine them incognito, they deduce his most startling alias: David Cohen. With time running out fast, Chandler and Miles manage to find and stop the Ripper before he completes his recreation of the murder of Mary Jane Kelly. However, Chandler remains to look after a seriously wounded Miles while the Ripper escapes and later commits suicide. |
Guest starring;
Series one and two were broadcast as a single six-episode season on BBC America, and were subsequently released on DVD as such. For the BBC America DVD release, the two stories were given individual titles, with series two being entitled: The Legend Rising (Parts 1–3) respectively.[ citation needed ]
Episode | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original airdate | Viewing Figures (millions) Sourced by BARB; figures include ITV1 HD | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | "Part 1" | David Evans | Ben Court & Caroline Ip | 11 October 2010 | 7.00 | |
Since the events of the Ripper case, Chandler is now permanently stationed at Whitechapel with Miles, McCormack and Kent. Fitzgerald has been demoted to PC with his position taken over by DC Finley Mansell. Deemed failures as a result of their inability to catch the Ripper, they are low down in the pecking order in comparison to the Organised Crime Division (OCD) run by DCI Cazenove, lauded for reducing street crime to negligible. The team bemoan the fact that there are no murders. Chandler's interest is piqued, however, when Anderson informs him another big case will find him soon. A dead body is soon discovered floating in the Thames, and a series of horrific attacks follow which appear to echo the Kray twins' infamous crimes of the 1960s. Despite Buchan's timely advice, Chandler suspects the local gangster Steven Dukes to be the mastermind, only to realise that he is facing a criminal duo seeking bloody revenge for the Krays' incarceration. | ||||||
2 | "Part 2" | David Evans | Ben Court & Caroline Ip | 18 October 2010 | 6.52 | |
A man is murdered in an old haunt of the Kray Twins, a pub called 'The Blind Beggar' in Whitechapel, the scene of a similar murder by Ronnie Kray in 1966. The barmaid says that the killer was Jimmy Kray and that he lives down the road with his mother, Angie Brooks. Chandler and Miles interview Angie, who reveals she visited Ronnie Kray in Broadmoor and he provided her with a sperm sample with which she became pregnant with identical twins, Jimmy and Johnny Kray. Dr Llewellyn explains forensics will not show which twin is the killer, so they need to investigate the Krays the old-fashioned way. Chandler's investigations rattle the twins and he's bundled into a car for a meeting, learning that Jimmy is clearly insane and Johnny is finding it hard to control him when he turned down their offer of backing off. The team's perseverance leads them into personal danger; Miles' son is threatened and Kent is terrorized by uniformed officers on the twins' payroll. Mansell receives a wreath delivered at his home, McCormack has a gun pointed at his head and Chandler is beaten before being dumped in Epping Forest. At rock bottom, Chandler asks for Buchan's help and takes his advice to use Jimmy's insanity to separate the twins. However, learning that Fitzgerald is on the twins' payroll, the meeting with Johnny goes awry while he and his brother rake the pub with automatic fire. Inside, Chandler spots a gun and fires back. When their ammunition is spent, the twins leave. Fitzgerald is arrested soon after while warning Chandler that he is the only one trying to stop the twins and is on borrowed time. | ||||||
3 | "Part 3" | David Evans | Ben Court & Caroline Ip | 25 October 2010 | 6.03 | |
After the shooting, Chandler instructs Miles to drive to Anderson's house. While Anderson and Chandler talk, Miles becomes worried when the only person he can't reach is McCormack. Racing to his house, they find him hanging in his garden shed. Llewellyn rules that the death is a suicide. McCormack's death appears to mark the end of the inquiry, but it's all for show. The investigation moves to a secret location, Buchan's house, which will be the new incident room. Anderson can only hold the Krays off for three days and they are only too aware that they have no witnesses, no evidence and no leads. They link Ronnie Kray's liking for young boys with Jimmy Kray's "Blond Boy". When the "Blond Boy" reveals himself as a girl, the team wonder what else is fake about these twins. Managing to obtain DNA of Ronnie and Jimmy, Chandler's group manages to confirm that their Kray twins are not related to the originals. Using this information to coax Dukes' support in exposing their organization, the Krays are arrested while it is revealed that only their mother Angie knew the truth and lied to them about Ronnie being their father. However, the Krays are assassinated while in custody with Anderson taking advantage of the resulting power vacuum within the police department. Soon after, Anderson accepts Chandler's request to set up a special team. |
Whitechapel was commissioned for a third series in March 2011, but unlike the previous two series, which were each based on a single event, the new series was split into three separate two-part stories, which each focused on a different case. For the BBC America DVD releases, the three stories were given individual titles: The Murder in Darkness, The Hunger for Mercy and The Sins of Betrayal respectively.[ citation needed ]
Episode | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original airdate | Viewing Figures (millions) Sourced by BARB; includes ITV1 HD and ITV1 +1 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1–2 | "Case One (Parts 1 & 2)" | John Strickland | Ben Court & Caroline Ip | 30 January 2012 6 February 2012 | 7.35 6.88 | |
Part One: Chandler and Miles investigate the slaughter of four people at a tailor's fortified workshop. Buchan, retained by Chandler as the team's historical adviser, believes that the huge archive at Whitechapel station will provide the necessary insight into the baffling crime, that appears to echo the Ratcliff Highway murders two-hundred years earlier. However, with no obvious point of access, both Chandler and Miles are puzzled as to how the killer would have committed the crimes without being seen. Part Two: When a second mass murder occurs, the M.O. matches the first case - again there was no obvious break-in and no forensic evidence to identify the killer. Chandler and Miles then discover that in both cases, food and drink was known to have been disappearing from the fridge days before the murders, and work out that the killer must have been hiding in the underbelly of the murder scenes, ready to pick the perfect moment to commit the crime. But can they identify the location of his next spree in time? Guest starring: Christina Chong as Lizzie Pepper; David Schneider as Marcus Salter; Caroline O'Neill as Trisha Ingall and Shaun Evans as Sly Driscoll | ||||||
3–4 | "Case Two (Parts 1 & 2)" | Richard Clark | Ben Court & Caroline Ip | 13 February 2012 20 February 2012 | 7.12 6.95 | |
Part One: As Chandler and Miles attend the christening of Miles's daughter, a fox runs through the streets of Whitechapel with a human arm in its mouth. Soon, more body parts from the same victim are washed up by the river, all containing evidence of a fatal poisoning. When limbs of a second victim are uncovered, Buchan believes the crimes echo the Thames torso murders of the 1880s - can the team, with the help of a female DI from South of the river, attractively like Chandler in her habits, crack the gruesome case? Part Two: When traces of the aphrodisiac Spanish fly are found in the bodies of the two murder victims, Chandler and Miles question what kind of killer they could be up against. As further victims come to light, the team are taken to the heart of a dark obsession where they discover that romance and love haven taken a sinister turn, and that the killer is picking his victims based on the appearance of his 'lost love', the driving force behind the murders. But can they catch him before he becomes out of control and strikes again? Guest starring: Camilla Power as DI Mina Norroy; Paul Chequer as Nathan Merceron | ||||||
5–6 | "Case Three (Parts 1 & 2)" | Jon East | Ben Court & Caroline Ip | 27 February 2012 5 March 2012 | 6.78 7.11 | |
Part One: When a babysitter is murdered, the post mortem reveals that her mobile phone had been thrust down her throat. Shortly afterwards, a second victim is discovered, having had his blood used to cover a wall which he was graffiting on. Chandler, Miles and the team suspect a dangerous patient and former Whitechapel resident, who has recently escaped from a psychiatric unit, and is obsessed with Lon Chaney and the film London After Midnight , where the sins of the victims are used against them during their murder. Part Two: With the body count rising following the murder of a young boy in a police firefight, Miles and Chandler clash over the direction of the investigation. Having already survived the killer's wrath once, Morgan Lamb is of particular interest to the team - especially Chandler. When she is attacked again, miraculously surviving the killer's advances a second time, Miles is certain of her involvement. As the chase escalates, will the team be able to put their differences aside in the face of their toughest adversary yet? Guest starring: Lydia Leonard as Morgan Lamb; Alistair Petrie as Simon Mortlake |
Whitechapel was commissioned for a fourth series in October 2012, and follows the same format as the third series, featuring three individual cases. For the BBC America DVD releases, the last three stories were given the titles The Real Enemy, The Force of Injustice and To This End, respectively.[ citation needed ][ clarification needed ]
Episode | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original airdate | Viewing figures (millions) Sourced by BARB and Broadcast magazine; includes ITV HD and ITV +1 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1–2 | "Case One (Parts 1 & 2)" | Jon East | Ben Court & Caroline Ip | 4 September 2013 11 September 2013 | 5.55 (Part 1) 4.71 (Part 2) | |
Part One: Chandler and Miles investigate the gruesome murder of an apparent tramp when they discover that the victim was a former spy, forcing the team to cross paths with MI6 as they attempt to discover whether an old adversary of the deceased is responsible. The murder, they discover, is a 16th-century torture, the peine forte et dure , and after a second body is found – an elderly woman burnt at the stake – they realise that someone has started a witch hunt and is now killing suspected witches in Whitechapel. Part Two: As the witch-hunt continues, the team discover that a third victim has disappeared and could be hours from death. They discover that a common link to known witch hunts is ergot poisoning, where the victim has to appease all of those he believes to be responsible for cursing him. Kent and Mansell come to blows during the investigation. Chandler is dissatisfied at the thought he may once again catch the killer on their deathbed. Miles suspects that something is going on in the bowels of the police station. Guest starring: Daisy Beaumont as Stella Knight; David Gant as Alexander Zukanov; Brian Protheroe as Crispin Wingfield | ||||||
3–4 | "Case Two (Parts 1 & 2)" | Daniel Nettheim | Steve Pemberton | 18 September 2013 25 September 2013 | 4.62 4.26 | |
Part One: The discovery of a flayed face in a Whitechapel gallery sparks the start of a killing spree where the victims are being found with no faces, fingerprints and the skin having been sliced from their back. The first victim, a Russian gangster, was in the midst of attacking a young girl when he was murdered, but the girl describes the killer as having an elderly female appearance. Could the killer really be an old lady? Or is the killer disguising himself with masks of his previous victims, or possibly even something more sinister? Part Two: The team discover that the motives behind the killings lie in criminal cases where the accused have escaped justice. When a fourth victim is discovered barely alive, the team are led to a young boy whose mother was killed in a hit-and-run incident by the victim. Convinced that he is the killer, both Chandler and Miles are shocked when they discover that the only crime he is responsible for is that of a tirade of abuse against the victim. Meanwhile, Buchan's research puts him in danger, and in the midst of the killer. Guest starring: Angela Pleasence as Louise Iver; Mandeep Dhillon as Sabima Masud; John Hodgkinson as Sid Walden | ||||||
5–6 | "Case Three (Parts 1 & 2)" | Jon East | Ben Court & Caroline Ip | 2 October 2013 9 October 2013 | 3.51 4.13 | |
Part One: Chandler has to pull the team together after an abysmal team-building exercise. Meanwhile, a disembowelled body is discovered in a sewer. The team must establish whether a killer is at large, or if feral swine have returned to London's sewers. When a second victim is pulled into the dreary depths on the way home from work, the team realise that the killer is targeting local 'heroes', all of whom have been interviewed for the local paper. However, they find the journalist's choice of dinner holds a clue to the investigation. Part Two: As further victims emerge, Chandler is forced to take desperate measures when Buchan suggests that the lack of discovery of the victims' missing organs could suggest that cannibals are operating in Whitechapel. When a priest is brutally murdered, a link to a doomsday cult is uncovered, where members of the group believe that eating the organs of innocent souls will save them from an oncoming apocalypse. Will Chandler and the team finally manage to round up the killers before he or she meet their unexpected fate? Guest starring: Angela Pleasence as Louise Iver |
The first series was written by Ben Court and Caroline Ip. ITV Director of Drama Laura Mackie said "Whitechapel is a very modern take on the detective genre which combines the Victorian intrigue of the original case with the atmospheric backdrop of a contemporary East End of London. This is not simply about bloodthirstily recreating the Ripper murders, but rather focusing on the three main characters at the heart of the story and the black humour that binds the team together." [14]
Whitechapel debuted on 2 February 2009 at 9 pm with 8.13 million viewers on the overnight ratings. [15] Series one received positive reviews, and holds a Metacritic score of 75 out of 100, indicating "generally favourable" reviews. [16]
A review in the Leicester Mercury said that it was " Life on Mars , without the time-travel" adding "what Whitechapel lacked in originality, it more than made up for with atmosphere and enthusiasm." [17] After Episode 2 was broadcast on 9 February, Andrew Billen in The Times said that he had warmed to it more and more, adding, "slowly, the show is making Ripperologists of us all, as Jack's 'canonical' murders are separated from the ones he actually committed. It is all in the worst possible taste and bloody good fun." [18] However, The Daily Telegraph was less impressed, writing "The premise was feeble, the script imbecilic, the acting on autopilot, the direction lacking in any glimmer of tension." [19]
Series two received favourable reviews, and holds a Metacritic score of 69 out of 100, indicating "generally favourable" reviews. [20]
The Hammersmith nude murders is the name of a series of six murders in West London, England, in 1964 and 1965. The victims, all prostitutes, were found undressed in or near the River Thames, leading the press to nickname the killer Jack the Stripper. Two earlier murders, committed in West London in 1959 and 1963, have also been linked by some investigators to the same perpetrator.
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 Nichols, known as 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 and around the Whitechapel district of London from late August to early November 1888.
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 then, the identity of the killer has been widely debated, with over 100 suspects named. Though many theories have been advanced, experts find none widely persuasive, and some are hardly taken seriously at all.
Frederick George Abberline was a British chief inspector for the London Metropolitan Police. He is best known for being a prominent police figure in the investigation into the Jack the Ripper serial killer murders of 1888.
The "From Hell" letter was a letter sent with half of a preserved human kidney to George Lusk, the chairman of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, 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 civilian efforts to assist the police in identifying and apprehending the perpetrator.
Aaron Kosminski was a Polish barber, hairdresser, and suspect in the Jack the Ripper case.
Francis Tumblety was an Irish-born American medical quack who earned a small fortune posing as an "Indian Herb" doctor throughout the United States and Canada. He was an eccentric self-promoter and was often in trouble with the law. He has been put forward as a suspect for the notorious and unsolved Jack the Ripper murder spree in Whitechapel, London, in 1888.
Rupert William Penry-Jones is a British actor, known for his performances as Adam Carter in Spooks, Clive Reader in Silk, DI Joseph Chandler in Whitechapel, and Mr. Quinlan in the American horror series The Strain.
Jack the Ripper was an unidentified serial killer active in and around the impoverished Whitechapel district of London, England, in 1888. In both criminal case files and the contemporaneous journalistic accounts, the killer was also called the Whitechapel Murderer and Leather Apron.
The Bill is a British police procedural television series, first broadcast on ITV from 16 October 1984 until 31 August 2010. The programme originated from a one-off drama, Woodentop, broadcast on 16 August 1983.
The Whitechapel murders were committed in or near the 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.
Law & Order: UK is a British police procedural and legal television programme broadcast from 2009 to 2014 on ITV, adapted from the American series Law & Order. Financed by the production companies Kudos Film and Television, Wolf Films, and Universal Television, the series originally starred Bradley Walsh, Freema Agyeman, Jamie Bamber, Ben Daniels, Harriet Walter and Bill Paterson. Dominic Rowan, Georgia Taylor, Paul Nicholls, Ben Bailey Smith, Sharon Small, Peter Davison and Paterson Joseph joined the cast in later series. This is the first American drama television series to be adapted for British television, while the episodes are adapted from scripts and episodes of the parent series.
Joseph Lawende was a Polish-born British cigarette salesman who is believed to have witnessed serial killer Jack the Ripper in the company of his fourth victim, Catherine Eddowes, approximately nine minutes before the discovery of her body on 30 September 1888.
Jack the Ripper is a drama television miniseries produced for Thames Television and CBS based on the notorious Jack the Ripper murder spree in Victorian London. It was first broadcast on ITV.
Ripper Street is a British mystery drama television series set in Whitechapel in the East End of London starring Matthew Macfadyen, Jerome Flynn, Adam Rothenberg, and MyAnna Buring. It begins in 1889, six months after the infamous Jack the Ripper murders. The first episode was broadcast on 30 December 2012, during BBC One's Christmas schedule, and was first broadcast in the United States on BBC America on 19 January 2013. Ripper Street returned for a second eight-part series on 28 October 2013.
Detective Inspector Edmund John James Reid was the head of the CID in the Metropolitan Police's H Division at the time of the Whitechapel murders of Jack the Ripper in 1888. He was also an early aeronaut.
Broadchurch is a British crime drama television series broadcast on ITV for three series between 2013 and 2017. It was created by Chris Chibnall, who acted as an executive producer and wrote all 24 episodes; it was produced by Kudos in association with Imaginary Friends Productions Ltd. The series is set in Broadchurch, a fictional English town on the coast of Dorset; it focuses on Detective Inspector Alec Hardy and Detective Sergeant Ellie Miller. Other members of the ensemble cast appearing in all three seasons are Jodie Whittaker, Andrew Buchan, Arthur Darvill, Carolyn Pickles, Jonathan Bailey, Matthew Gravelle, Charlotte Beaumont and Adam Wilson.
The Thames Torso Murders, often called the Thames Mysteries or the Embankment Murders, were a sequence of unsolved murders of women occurring in London, England from 1887 to 1889. The series included four incidents which were filed as belonging to the same series. None of the cases were solved, and only one of the four victims was identified. In addition, other murders of a similar kind, taking place between 1873 and 1902, have also been associated with the same murder series.
Charles Allen Lechmere, also known as Charles Allen Cross, was a native of East London who reportedly worked as a carman for the Pickfords company for more than 20 years. On 31 August 1888, Lechmere apparently found the body of Mary Ann Nichols, the first of Jack the Ripper's five canonical victims, while on his way to work. Although long regarded as merely a passer-by at the crime scene, Lechmere has since been named as a Jack the Ripper suspect by contemporary true crime writers.