Good news everyone! If like me you’ve wondering how on earth you’re going to survive without a regular dose of Captain Jackson (cor blimey), DS Reid (did you know that he was one cool guy in real life – he used to be really into jumping out of hot air balloons for fun and was an actual god’s honest real life DRUID?) and the rather fabulous Sergeant Drake as well as Long Susan, the bushy red bearded desk sergeant (as my great great great grandfather was a sergeant in H Division in 1888, I’ve decided that this was in fact he as, y’know, red hair etc), lots of muddy faced Cockernee trollops, mud larks, floral waistcoat wearing wide boys and the thoroughly awful but weirdly hot Inspector Shine then WONDER NO MORE FOR RIPPER STREET IS SAVED.
Confounding everyone who got carried away by the title and thought it was going to be awash with ripped up women every week when in actual fact the male body count was MUCH higher and it provided a thoughtful commentary of all manner of often forgotten or whitewashed Victorian ills, Ripper Street soon proved itself to be a bold, vibrant and vigorous interpretation of the mean streets of London’s East End in the dying years of the nineteenth century as viewed through the often drug distorted gaze of a trio of misfits. Remember the time that Jackson and Reid ended up living together and became some sort of drink addled, waistcoat wearing, sideburn fondling Victorian version of The Odd Couple? Or perhaps the time that everyone cried when Joseph Merrick waxed lyrical to a suicidal sideshow ‘freak’ about the sexual delights that he himself would never know? Or what about that time that Jackson had an actual bloody DUEL TO THE DEATH in the middle of the street and no one seemed to care? Or how about the time Jackson necked a dubious bottle of medicine to see what it was, only to discover that it was AMPHETAMINES and end up going on a gun toting bender around Spitalfields? GOOD TIMES.
Well, the good times are BACK my friends and I, for one, am ECSTATIC about it. Cheers to everyone who signed the petition and joined in with all the general rabble rousing all over the internet. It’s nice to know that people DO pay attention sometimes, isn’t it!
There’s no word yet on when exactly it’ll be screened but filming starts this May and it’ll be funded by Amazon Prime, who will premier the new episodes before they appear on the BBC.
Ooh and speaking of Inspector Shine – I am 99.9% sure that I walked past either him or his exact stunt double in the Old Vic in Bristol last week. I had to work REALLY HARD not to run after whoever it was shouting ‘YOU KILLED JOSEPH MERRICK, YOU BASTARD’. Good work there, Clegg. Good work.
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