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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:
GoodOldEmmaNess · 03/10/2023 13:50

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

I agree that it is doing that, and that is positive in principle. And I can see that the programme is less bad than many of its kind. But it isn't as if we haven't already criticised this stigmatising portrait of sutcliffe's victims (over several handwringing decades) and tried to go beyond it (and then repeatedly stigmtatised new generations of victims in similar ways).

I feel that this new-found alleged respect for the victims is just a figleaf to excuse the continuing use of women's murder and rape for entertainment purposes.

It reminds me of the several awful films I have seen in which women are horribly raped and then take a bloody revenge. We are supposed to see such films as somehow empowering and even feminist, because we are all cheering along with the bloody revenge. But again I think it really just helps people to feel ok about using rape and other exploitations of women as entertainment.

The point that I gave up was near the beginning of episode 2 when the format became clear: Each episode starts with the death of one woman and then immediately lines up the next victim, so you watch a parade of women in all their varied reality just being set up, one by one, to become corpses. No thanks.

Another annoying thing is that the programme seems to create a single character to bear the brunt of expressing all the misogyny that seethed through the entire police force. As if it were just 'bad apples' rather than systematic sexism that disadvantged women.

Original poster
Blondeshavemorefun · 03/10/2023 15:23

the victims were labelled either prostitutes or innocent. That's awful

I wonder if weee innocent to begin with wouid the investigation been better

Nice to see the mothers stories and lives

OP posts:
Geranuimgina · 03/10/2023 16:47

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This has been deleted by MNHQ for breaking our Talk Guidelines.

snickersandmarsandbounty · 03/10/2023 18:00

I was a child in Leeds- it was a dark time but as kids didn’t really take in the enormity of it, as kids do we wanted to form a gang and hang around Chapel town to see if we could catch him.
I remember hearing that we were to be suspicious of any male relative from your Father to your Uncle etc. This became really heightened after any murder, no one believes his wife didn’t know
I remember the posters that were everywhere after the murder of Jane Macdonald and the fear ramping up amongst the adults.
My Mum carried a rape alarm but pretty much carried on as normal.
I remember the hoax tape being played again and again on the television, I even thought it might be a hoax- shame the police were so convinced
The filming isn’t at roundhay park / soldiers field
Wilma McCann wasn’t found in Chapeltown
The Leeds map at Milgarth police station has L1, L6 - the Leeds postcode is LS
Not binged watching

Bahhhhhumbug · 04/10/2023 02:37

I know they acknowledged that some parts were fictional but am really confused by the victim called Donna Deangelo portrayed in this. I can find no record anywhere or have no memory of her name whilst the others are really etched on my brain as was in my 20s in Greater Manchester through that period.Surely they wouldnt make one victim up when all the others are correct and in right order in the series?

toomanyleggings · 06/10/2023 14:30

Bahhhhhumbug · 04/10/2023 02:37

I know they acknowledged that some parts were fictional but am really confused by the victim called Donna Deangelo portrayed in this. I can find no record anywhere or have no memory of her name whilst the others are really etched on my brain as was in my 20s in Greater Manchester through that period.Surely they wouldnt make one victim up when all the others are correct and in right order in the series?

Same I thought maybe it was a name she went my but not her real name. I can’t figure out who she’s meant to be. I’ve binge watched it. Like a pp I don’t normally watch these things as I also resent women’s rape and murder being light entertainment but I’m ashamed to say I got sucked in. Having watched the whole thing they’ve clearly tried to make it seem that they’ve done it for the women and families and to highlight the crap policing. This is done to a better degree towards the end I think. There’s actually very little of Peter Sutcliffe himself dramatised which I think is better than some of these other dramas like The Serpent that give these monsters too much bloody status.

AInightingale · 09/10/2023 00:16

If Donna DeAngelo was the woman who applied for a job as a nanny, then she was based on Irene Richardson. I don't know why they changed her name, perhaps at the request of her children? Or perhaps she had aliases. She had several kids and I think they were in foster care. She was herself mentally very unwell. These women had very sad lives, most were estranged from their partners and had drifted into prostitution of the most casual and desperate kind. What I can't understand is the portrayal of Emily Jackson's husband Sydney because he was by all accounts a brute who beat her.

Original poster
Blondeshavemorefun · 09/10/2023 08:00

AInightingale · 09/10/2023 00:16

If Donna DeAngelo was the woman who applied for a job as a nanny, then she was based on Irene Richardson. I don't know why they changed her name, perhaps at the request of her children? Or perhaps she had aliases. She had several kids and I think they were in foster care. She was herself mentally very unwell. These women had very sad lives, most were estranged from their partners and had drifted into prostitution of the most casual and desperate kind. What I can't understand is the portrayal of Emily Jackson's husband Sydney because he was by all accounts a brute who beat her.

Oh really. So not how he was portrayed

OP posts:
x2boys · 09/10/2023 08:34

AInightingale · 09/10/2023 00:16

If Donna DeAngelo was the woman who applied for a job as a nanny, then she was based on Irene Richardson. I don't know why they changed her name, perhaps at the request of her children? Or perhaps she had aliases. She had several kids and I think they were in foster care. She was herself mentally very unwell. These women had very sad lives, most were estranged from their partners and had drifted into prostitution of the most casual and desperate kind. What I can't understand is the portrayal of Emily Jackson's husband Sydney because he was by all accounts a brute who beat her.

They did consult with the families though who must have been ok with how Emily's husband was potrayed?
I have no.idea if he was a vicious Brute or not but I guess they could use some poetic licence

AInightingale · 09/10/2023 09:01

Think one of the sons came out and said it but his siblings didn't. Told how the father beat Emily, with a poker on one occasion, that they separated a couple o times because of the violence, and that far from being horrified at her turning to prostitution , he was very enthusiastic about it and goaded her on. Odd how facts are still being twisted.

toomanyleggings · 09/10/2023 10:43

The Donna de Angello character in it wasn’t the Nanny that didn’t get the job. She was the blonde sex worker whose friend went to London for better money

SydneyCarton · 09/10/2023 10:44

I think the woman who applied for the nanny job was actually named as Irene Richardson, but I agree that "Donna DeAngelo" may be a pseudonym for one of the other victims whose family didn't want her to be named. The series doesn't show every murder though, rather the wider effect on the families.

I didn't know Emily Jackson's husband abused her, but I had always read that it was him who forced or persuaded her into prostitution so I was surprised to see it being portrayed as her idea. Perhaps the writers were trying to portray her as having more control and agency, making her a more positive character who's trying to help her family rather than Sydney who comes across as weak and pathetic.

Llloydwells · 09/10/2023 10:55

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This has been deleted by MNHQ for breaking our Talk Guidelines.

I was hooked on the first few episodes but when the focus shifted to the police rather than the women it didn't hold my attention

WatchOutMissMarpleIsAbout · 09/10/2023 12:50

I was a student in Leeds but after he was caught. A woman’s minibus ran from the uni to drop us home. Ran till midnight IIRC.

No woman really felt safe in case they had got the wrong person.

I went to law school in London after university, and the same fear with the women walking home, after going out or after college wasn’t there. It was only then, I realised what a strange environment Leeds was with that fear.

ScarletPower · 09/10/2023 16:45

Donna De Angelo was a fictional character based on Yvonne Pearson.

I've read that Pearson's family didn't give their permission for her to be featured but I don't know how true that is.

However it could be true given that they didn't feature her and Donna's death mirrored Yvonne's.

I think they could get away with leaving some of the other victims out but it was only due to Yvonne's murder that the Sunderland detective realised the letter writer was a hoax. He wrote the letter before Yvonne's body was found and told them they thought he'd killed 7 but he was actually up to 8 and hinted at the Preston Murder. But at that time he'd actually have killed 9 as Yvonne was undiscovered. So they needed a victim to point that out, that the letter writer was a hoaxer, hence the fictional Donna.

Although a fat lot of good it seemed to do given that they still went down the "is he a Geordie" route even after that was pointed out.

Original poster
Blondeshavemorefun · 09/10/2023 21:03

E3 now

OP posts:
SydneyCarton · 09/10/2023 21:22

Isn’t Donna the girl with blonde hair and the blue leather jacket who was planning on going to London? She hasn’t been killed, it’s her friend Patricia Atkinson who is the next victim.

Jellykat · 09/10/2023 21:43

The police are real bloody idiots, its so bloody frustrating!

Summermeadowflowers · 09/10/2023 21:44

That poor woman Sad

How desperate must they have been to have gone out when a serial killer was out there?

Emotionalsupportviper · 09/10/2023 21:52

Jellykat · 09/10/2023 21:43

The police are real bloody idiots, its so bloody frustrating!

Misogynistic, judgemental, smug bar-stewards as well.

(Edited for spelling. It's always bliddy spelling. Or grammar.)

SydneyCarton · 09/10/2023 21:56

I remember having one of those tin openers that was attached to the wall. Except we had it ten years after this 🙄. And the Kenwood Chef in the background.

Jellykat · 09/10/2023 21:57

Yes agree Emotionalsupportviper , i posted before the 2 young coppers nabbed the girl that got beaten up.. and now the lady with the headaches has been turned down for compensation.. absolute knobend tossers!!

Original poster
Blondeshavemorefun · 09/10/2023 23:34

Jellykat · 09/10/2023 21:43

The police are real bloody idiots, its so bloody frustrating!

So thick

OP posts:
AInightingale · 10/10/2023 06:44

Beats me why Marcella's phofofit was never made public. Sutcliffe was distinctive-looking. And the young girl in the countryside he attacked very similarly in 1975 provided an identical description. Why any police force would ignore or suppress the corroborative, eye-witness evidence of victims is beyond me.

daffodilandtulip · 10/10/2023 07:33

Jellykat · 09/10/2023 21:43

The police are real bloody idiots, its so bloody frustrating!

Both with this one, and the Saville one, it's depressing to see how little women were thought of and treated, in the very recent past.