Ripper documentary among new commissions announced by BBC Four

A ghost story and a re-examining of The Yorkshire Ripper case with “contemporary eyes” are among the new commissions announced by BBC Four.

Sherlock star Mark Gatiss has written and directed a “chilling” ghost story The Dead Room, which will also feature Simon Callow, Anjli Mohindra, Susan Penhaligon and Joshua Oakes-rogers.

The Dead Room was one of four new projects announced by BBC Four’s Cassian Harrison at the Edinburgh TV Festival.

Filmmaker Liza Williams 0 New series will ‘re-examine’ the Peter Sutcliffe case

will helm The Yorkshire Ripper and will “re-investigate the case and re-examine it with contemporary eyes to question whether attitudes of the time, towards women and prostitutes in particular, influenced the investigation and meant that Peter Sutcliffe was caught years too late”, the BBC said.

Also announced was You, Me and Eugenics, the working title of a series which will be presented by science journalist Angela Saini and disability campaigner Adam Pearson.

According to the BBC, the series “explores the history and modern versions of eugenics, the attempt to manipulate our genetic inheritance, to change human evolution and to breed a “better” human”. Another commission acquired by the channel is The Plague, a six-part thriller.