ITV’s latest upcoming true crime drama, The Long Shadow, is giving the victims of Peter Sutcliffe and their families respect by choosing to focus on the lives of Sutcliffe’s victims, their loved ones and the long-lasting ‘shadow’ that his crimes had on so many lives.
Executive producer and writer George Kay explained how the drama was originally named The Yorkshire Ripper, the label given to Sutcliffe by the British press when his identity was not revealed yet.
The ITV drama was renamed to The Long Shadow to prevent a “dark brand around a man who doesn’t deserve that sort of attention,” Kay revealed.
“We started by calling it The Yorkshire Ripper but in the beginning we hadn’t learnt, as we did when making the show, that the moniker used to describe Peter Sutcliffe – which obviously began before anyone knew his real name, but continued after – was disrespectful in many ways.”
Kay commented that changing the name of the series was “one of our lessons” in making a more respectful exploration of Sutcliffe’s crimes. “We’ve been working on this for four years and in that time we’ve met lots of people in all parts of this story,” he said.
“We’ve tried to learn and change and understand their stories and their opinions, and so because of that the title changed from The Yorkshire Ripper.”
Sutcliffe was convicted in 1981 of murdering 13 women and attempting to murder seven others between the years of 1975 and 1980.
This seven-part series aims to explore a different side to the events, averting the focus on Sutcliffe’s horrific crimes and how they were undertaken, and instead onto the victims and their families. Sutcliffe is reportedly set to appear only briefly in later episodes.
Toby Jones is starring as DCS Dennis Hoban, while David Morrissey is playing DCS George Oldfield and Lee Ingleby is DCS Jim Hobson, three of the main officers who worked to stop and convict Sutcliffe.
Katherine Kelly is appearing as Sutcliffe’s second victim, Emily Jackson, with Daniel Mays as her husband. Jill Halfpenny has been cast as Doreen Hill, the mother of Sutcliffe’s last victim, Jacqueline Hill.
The Long Shadow is on ITV1 and ITVX from Monday 25th September at 9pm.
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