The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Review
THE LONG SHADOW
ITV1, 9pm
You may think television has covered every possible aspect of the Yorkshire Ripper case, but this extensively researched seven-part drama series by George Kay, based on Wicked Beyond Belief, Michael Bilton’s acclaimed account of the case, aims to take a different path. It focuses not on the serial killer – Peter Sutcliffe (played by Mark Stobbart) is a peripheral figure – but instead on his victims and the police officers involved in what was at times a mismanaged investigation. The victims – othered by some police and the media at the time as “just” prostitutes – are here given proper identities as the mothers forced into sex work by economic circumstances; the woman walking home alone; or the ambitious student.
The producers have made two other excellent true-crime dramas – Des and White House Farm
– and have gathered another terrific cast here, including Toby Jones as DCS Dennis Hoban, who initially led the enquiry, David Morrissey as DCS George Oldfield, who took over the investigation, and Katherine Kelly as victim Emily Jackson. The series begins with the discovery of the body of Wilma McCann, who was the mother of four young children and Sutcliffe’s first victim. Veronica Lee
Wallen present this new series examining why some classical pieces have such enduring appeal. They start with Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (later programmes cover Bizet’s Carmen and Mendelssohn’s Hebrides overture), given a stirring rendition by Sinfonia Cymru. Klass marvels that the 1720 piece has an “energy that the modern ear can attune to”.