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Original poster

THE LONG SHADOW - mon 9pm ITV. TV PACE. NO SPOILERS

221 replies

Blondeshavemorefun · 20/09/2023 17:58

The Long Shadow is a seven-part series that will start at 9pm on Monday September 25 2023 on ITV1, with subsequent episodes broadcast every Monday evening from thereon.

The Long Shadow is based in part on Wicked Beyond Belief by Michael Bilton, a critically acclaimed account of the case. It sensitively tells the stories of the victims who crossed Sutcliffe’s path, as well as their families and survivors. It also highlights alarming parallels between the so-called Yorkshire Ripper’s terrible crimes and tragic events in our more recent history.

Between 1975 and 1980, Peter Sutcliffe terrorised Yorkshire in a killing spree that left 13 women dead and seven others lucky to be alive after they managed to survive his brutal attacks.

His horrific crimes left a deep scar on the nation’s psyche and have been the subject of numerous films and documentaries, but the grief and pain that continues to be felt by his victims’ families is often forgotten.

Opening in October 1975, with the murder of Wilma McCann, a mother of four young children from Leeds, this week’s first episode goes on to follow the story of Sydney Jackson and his wife Emily, who would be Sutcliffe’s second victim.

Like many people in Britain during the period, the Jacksons were struggling to make ends meet in tough economic times, and Emily made the difficult decision to become a part-time sex worker in a bid to support their three children.

The police initially suspect Sydney of killing his wife, until it soon becomes clear the two murders are linked – and the start of a terrifying killing spree.

As the series progresses, Sutcliffe’s crimes launch the biggest police manhunt Britain has ever seen, but many of the detectives harbour misogynistic attitudes that hamper their investigation.

However, one detective who understands the situation is DCS Dennis Hoban (Toby Jones) who takes up the case in its early stages.
Sutcliffe avoided detection for years due to a series of missed chances by police to catch him. He eventually confessed in 1981 after a police check discovered stolen number plates on his car

The cast is amazing

•	Toby Jones (<a class="break-all" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toby_Jones)" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toby_Jones)</a> as DCS Dennis Hoban
•	David Morrissey (<a class="break-all" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Morrissey)" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Morrissey)</a> as DCS George Oldfield
•	Daniel Mays (<a class="break-all" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Mays)" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Mays)</a> as Sydney Jackson
•	Lee Ingleby (<a class="break-all" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Ingleby)" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Ingleby)</a> as DCS Jim Hobson
•	Katherine Kelly (<a class="break-all" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katherine_Kelly_(actress))" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katherine_Kelly_(actress))</a> as Emily Jackson
•	Shaun Dooley (<a class="break-all" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaun_Dooley)" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaun_Dooley)</a> as DCS Chris Gregg
•	Daisy Waterstone (<a class="break-all" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daisy_Waterstone)" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daisy_Waterstone)</a> as Jacqueline Hill
•	Jill Halfpenny (<a class="break-all" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jill_Halfpenny)" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jill_Halfpenny)</a>

as Doreen Hill

•

Jasmine Lee-Jones as Marcella Claxton

•

Molly Wright (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molly_Wright_(actress))
as Donna Deangelo

•

Liz White (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liz_White_(actress))
as PS Meg Winterburn

•

Mark Stobbart as
Peter Sutcliffe (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Sutcliffe)

•

Alexa Davies (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexa_Davies)

•

Chloe Harris

•

Stephen Tompkinson (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Tompkinson)

•

Jack Deam (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Deam)

•

Michael McElhatton (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_McElhatton)

•

Adam Long (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Long_(British_actor))

•

Ruth Madeley (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Madeley)

•

Dorothy Atkinson (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Atkinson)

•

Rob James-Collier (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_James-Collier)

•

Charley Webb (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charley_Webb)

•

Steven Waddington (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Waddington)

•

Kris Hitchen

•

Victoria Myers
[1]

OP posts:
Original poster
Blondeshavemorefun · 28/09/2023 20:20

butterpuffed · 28/09/2023 18:06

Aw , the two little children sitting on the bench waiting for their mum to get off a bus , so sad .

And their faces

OP posts:
Jellykat · 02/10/2023 21:06

Poor kid having to do the Identification of his mum..

SydneyCarton · 02/10/2023 21:12

I missed why they didn’t want the husband to do the ID? Was it because they thought he’d done it?

daffodilandtulip · 02/10/2023 21:14

It was the husband who didn't want to do it. Well he just clammed up and sat down, so they asked the boy.

lazymum99 · 02/10/2023 21:14

They did want him to do it. But he said he couldn’t handle it so the son did it

Jellykat · 02/10/2023 21:22

Great, now hes found out his mum was a prostitute via the tv..
They really didnt handle things sensitively in those days did they?!

GoodOldEmmaNess · 02/10/2023 21:32

Have given up on this. The only merit it has is the crafting of a 'period style' - so it feels like they are treating the real-life brutalisation and murder of women in much the same way as Call the Midwife.

There is no need for this story to be told yet again. I can only imagine that it is a response to the popularity and profitability of similar programmes on streaming services.

When the Jeffrey Dahmer drama screened there was a load of righteous huffling about how exploitative it was to use the murder of young men as a storyline. And yet we are expected to lap up the telling and retelling and retelling of the murder of women. Every single time.

I believe one local authority refused to co-operate with the programme. Good for them. There isn't any amount of sepia-toned filtering and carefully positioned 70s fabrics that could give this programme a worthwhile purpose.

SydneyCarton · 02/10/2023 21:32

I thought that monologue on the phone with the policewoman was really good.

Original poster
Blondeshavemorefun · 02/10/2023 22:02

Bugger. Was chatting to friend and releises this has started

Will catch up Tom. Haven't read any replies

OP posts:
lazymum99 · 02/10/2023 22:03

It’s a really hard watch. And they have just dropped the whole series on ITVX

ssd · 02/10/2023 22:05

The police were shocking

Jellykat · 02/10/2023 22:07

Blondeshavemorefun · 02/10/2023 22:02

Bugger. Was chatting to friend and releises this has started

Will catch up Tom. Haven't read any replies

Unlike you to be slack Blondes!

cheeseisthebest · 02/10/2023 22:12

ssd · 02/10/2023 22:05

The police were shocking

Nothing changes.

daffodilandtulip · 02/10/2023 22:31

I feel like the Charley Webb policewoman is noticing how crap they are and might say something. A lot of time was lost not adding the African lady's evidence to the case.

x2boys · 02/10/2023 23:22

Jellykat · 02/10/2023 21:22

Great, now hes found out his mum was a prostitute via the tv..
They really didnt handle things sensitively in those days did they?!

Well.as far as the police were concerned they were " just prostitutes " women of loose morals ,just awful.

Augustus40 · 03/10/2023 09:17

Am enjoying the final 2 episodes on ITVX I skipped episodes 3 to 5.

Original poster
Blondeshavemorefun · 03/10/2023 09:50

I know @Jellykat

Had a friend in need bless she so a good chat on the phone

Will watch it now

OP posts:
SydneyCarton · 03/10/2023 10:11

@x2boys The police only ramped up the investigation once "innocent women" had been killed, and there are unsolved murders which at the time were not linked to these crimes because the victims weren't prostitutes. The whole investigation was an absolute botch job- there was so much paperwork at one point that the floor of the incident room had to be reinforced due to the sheer weight of it. The police interviewed PS 9 times, on one occasion showing him a picture of the boot print which had been left near a body, and didn't notice he was wearing an identical pair of boots. It beggars belief.

LillianGish · 03/10/2023 10:25

I've only watched the first episode so haven't caught up with the whole thread yet, but wanted to say I grew up near Leeds in the 1970s and I think the title The Long Shadow is an an excellent one. The spectre of the Yorkshire Ripper cast a long shadow over the whole region at the time - I remember never being allowed to go out alone after dark (nor wanting to!) in my early teenage years until Sutcliffe was finally caught. That feeling has stayed with me to a certain extent because it was so heavily drummed into us - it continues to cast a long shadow. I also really like the way Emily Jackson has been portrayed. Sutcliffe's early victims were dismissed as prostitutes not only by the police but also in the newspapers. But of course they were more than that. The red bills and Emily's husband's seeming inability to understand them showed us what drove her to it - it was not just to pay for Christmas and bridesmaids dresses. Also her dancing at the Gaiety suggests where she might have got the idea. Swept off her feet on the dance floor and then pulled up short when she realises it's not a one-night-stand/quick fumble that the stranger wants, but that he's prepared to pay for it. So what's the difference? The sense that she would just do it temporarily to make a fast buck, but now she's forever labelled a prostitute in perpetuity. And somehow less worthy of investigation or sympathy than if she was simply a "respectable" mother - who wanted to provide for her children, the sort of woman who would put a pound in the charity collection at Christmas. I like the fact that we are seeing the women - Wilma McCann tucking her four children into bed - and not the violence. It is a story worth retelling for it to be told in a better way that doesn't trash the victims.

SydneyCarton · 03/10/2023 11:48

@LillianGish I've read/watched a lot of true crime and I've noticed a definite shift towards telling the victims' stories and focussing less on the perpetrator. I think women have always been keen consumers of this type of content - all those True Detective style magazines etc - but now women are starting to create the content with books, dramas and podcasts and I think this is where the change in focus comes from.

Patricia Cornwell's book on Jack the Ripper was rubbish in terms of identifying the killer [yawn] but I learnt new things about the victims from it which I had never found in any book written by a male crime writer. Hallie Rubenhold's The Five, and the follow up Bad Women podcast are brilliant, focussing entirely on the victims, the social and historical context of their lives and the circumstances which brought them within the killer's reach.

I've previously watched This is Personal, which focusses on George Oldfield's attempts to catch PS and his obsession with the case. I might rewatch it now and see how it differs from this.

openallday · 03/10/2023 12:40

I hate the way the victims were labelled either prostitutes or innocent

openallday · 03/10/2023 12:42

SydneyCarton · 02/10/2023 21:32

I thought that monologue on the phone with the policewoman was really good.

Yes, that was brilliantly done

openallday · 03/10/2023 12:44

So much incompetent policing and the amount of prejudice that clouded the police judgement is frustrating

But imagine conducting an investigation back then without the resources we have today

No technology, computers, cameras, databases, dna,

He was only caught due to luck

openallday · 03/10/2023 12:49

GoodOldEmmaNess · 02/10/2023 21:32

Have given up on this. The only merit it has is the crafting of a 'period style' - so it feels like they are treating the real-life brutalisation and murder of women in much the same way as Call the Midwife.

There is no need for this story to be told yet again. I can only imagine that it is a response to the popularity and profitability of similar programmes on streaming services.

When the Jeffrey Dahmer drama screened there was a load of righteous huffling about how exploitative it was to use the murder of young men as a storyline. And yet we are expected to lap up the telling and retelling and retelling of the murder of women. Every single time.

I believe one local authority refused to co-operate with the programme. Good for them. There isn't any amount of sepia-toned filtering and carefully positioned 70s fabrics that could give this programme a worthwhile purpose.

Well i think it's portraying the victims as real people with human struggles and stories and families.

They weren't just prostitutes. The media alway referred to the ladies as prostitutes. They were more that

This is focused on showing the victims as humans and the
Police as bumbling men

Pinktops · 03/10/2023 13:34

Thank you 😊