First published on Green Man Review.
We have a floor-to-ceiling built-in bookcase on the wall in our living room. Several of the shelves are jam-packed with action figures, mostly renditions of various characters from the DC Comics universe. On a shelf that houses part of our CD collection stands a very realistic and scary Jack the Ripper action figure. I wouldn’t say that we are obsessed with the Jack the Ripper story (that would be too much!), but I would say that we both like atmospheric, noir-ish murder mysteries, so when a version of the Jack the Ripper story appears on the scene, we sit up and take notice.
I actually discovered this lovely three part mini-series when I was doing background research for my recent review of the 2008 ITV Marple offerings. I recognized an actor in one of the episodes from another British series, and when I looked him up, I noticed that he had also appeared in Whitechapel. Intrigued by the title, I did a Wikipedia database search, read the plot synopsis, and mentioned it to my husband. In turn, he tracked down a copy of the DVD, which was just a bit of a challenge since we live on the west side of the Atlantic Basin.
This is not a period piece, but rather a contemporary re-visiting of the Jack the Ripper story told from the perspective of the law enforcement officers working the cases. Detective Inspector Joseph Chandler (played by Rupert Perry-Jones) is a fast-tracker, as they say — a well-connected and attractive young man positioned to rise rapidly into the higher echelons of Scotland Yard without getting his hands too dirty. As the first episode in the series opens, he’s brought in to solve a grisly murder, taking charge of a rag-tag criminal investigation unit led by Detective Sergeant Ray Miles (played by Phil Davis). Miles is a seasoned veteran of the force, familiar with the Whitechapel district and none too fond of greenhorn fast-trackers like Chandler. The first few encounters between these two men are full of animosity!
The explicit connection to the Ripper murders first comes to light when Chandler meets Edward Buchan (played by Steve Pemberton), one of the local Ripperologists — that is, people who make a living through their knowledge of the details of the original Ripper story. Although he’s initially skeptical, Chandler doesn’t entirely dismiss Buchan’s ideas and soon the two men are working together to make sense of the unfolding mystery — yes, they are dealing with a contemporary killer bent on re-creating all of the Ripper murders as meticulously as possible.
Husband and wife writing team Ben Court and Caroline Ip did a bang-up job with this mini-series, which is fast-paced, dark (much of the action takes place at night) and suspenseful. They and the actors deserve considerable recognition for portraying some very convincing developments in all three of the main characters and for bringing the Ripper story painfully into the present. Even the combination of the historical record with modern forensic technologies is barely adequate to solve these crimes.
The DVD includes one of the better special features I’ve ever seen in one of these packages, ‘Whitechapel—Peeling Back the Layers,’ which documents the making of the mini-series.
The final scenes in the last episode leave open the possibility of an ongoing series that looks like ‘Homicide: Life on the Streets’ relocated to London. I hope that this script survives the ITV meltdown and goes into successful production. I’ll be watching for it!
(Carnival Films and Television LTD, 2008; ITV 2009)
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