Many of London’s visitors first see Whitechapel on a Jack the Ripper tour. The three-hour itinerary through a maze of dark alleys and cramped yards does much to reinforce the neighborhood’s infamy. The launch story of Whitechapel puts the location to good use as East End police detectives investigate a series of modern-day murders that replicate the Ripper cases in MO, timing and location. Rupert Penry-Jones (MI-5, The 39 Steps, Persuasion) stars as Detective Inspector Chandler, who is being groomed for higher placement once he pays his dues for a few months on the mean streets. Detective Sergeant Miles (Phil Davis, Sherlock, Collision, Bleak House) has seen it all before, and can barely contain his hostility toward the new man. His hostility finds a second target when a published “Ripperologist” tour guide, Edward Buchan (Steve Pemberton, The League of Gentlemen, Poirot: Death on the Nile), points out all the similarities between the cases and the Ripper murders. “So all you’ve got to do now is solve the unsolvable and catch the most famous serial killer that ever lived,” Miles taunts. Will over a hundred years of forensic advances make a difference? The DVD will be available in November after the three-part story runs on BBC America’s Dramaville. The Canadian broadcaster is as yet unknown.
Dramaville will run Whitechapel’s second story, which harks back to the Kray Brothers gang of the Sixties, from November 16 – 30, but sadly we know of no plans for a DVD of that three-part story. With a proper six-part season in the works for next year, we can still hope.
FAN ALERT: Doctor Who Series Six – Part Two premieres on BBC America and Space this Saturday night, August 27th.
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