"The Long Shadow" Yorkshire Ripper series on TV

Day Lewin

I've been watching this....

Very evocative of the period, but I wonder how true to life it is.

How can the writers know what various police officers said to each other?

I know it's "Dramatised" but that's a LOT of fiction-alising!

What does anyone else think?

Day Lewin

I'll start, then --

I was living in England during some of the "Yorkshire Ripper" period - well, first in Wales and later in North-Eastern England.

I remember very well how the latest murder would be mentioned on the News; and also the general sense of fear, among women.

And the city where I lived wasn't all that far from Bradford.

My beef with the TV series is this: they present the police as inefficient and pompous, misogynistic and cynical. And I have read some books about this case and there's no doubt that there were many defects in the investigation. Arising partly from that British system of each county having its own police force, with very varying skills. Poor communication, all that.

But the script also implies that they didn't take the murder of prostitutes seriously, with snide comments like "He's murdered a respectable girl now" etc etc

But that is just not true! I recall seeing the Helen Rytka victim on TV - they described how her twin sister was bereaved - and how young she was.

There was notices up all around town and in colleges, giving warning to women not to go out alone etc. Sales of "rape alarms" went up - you held it in your hand, pressing in a button, that would go off with a siren wail if you let go of it. Escorts were provided if a girl had to walk home alone at night.

It is true that sex work by its very nature is risky- it involves being alone one-to-one with an unknown man who might be perverted or violent or both, and there's no witnesses. Serial killers often target prostitutes for this reason (whatever they may claim)

But there was NOTHING to suggest that the police were less keen on catching the killer of a sex worker than of any other woman. At First we thought that anyone who was NOT a sex worker would be safe, but that was soon disproved too. He was a horrible crazy creature and he didn't care who he killed!

Mantis Toboggan

This worth watching?

Gussie Scrotch

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121325358#Comment_121325358

Yes,

If you're interested in the subject.

I lived in England during the "ripper" times and it was a big, big ongoing national news issue.

So, for me, as someone who followed the story in real time, its fascinating to be given a glimpse behind the scenes to understand how this monster evaded the police for so long and how the families of the victims were affected.

The crimes themselves are of secondary interest in relation to the efforts of the police to find the bastard. It was the biggest ever manhunt in the UK.

Day Lewin

Well worth watching.

Though not necessarily accurate! I mean, the actual crimes were as described; but they can't know all that went on behind the scenes in the police.

Mantis Toboggan

Perfect must give this a watch.