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

[Blondeshavemorefun]

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

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Jasmine Lee-Jones as Marcella Claxton

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

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

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

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

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Chloe Harris

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Kris Hitchen

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Victoria Myers
[1]

I doubt we'll ever know the truth about his wife, who only divorced Sutcliffe in 1994 and continued to visit him up until 2017 . When he confessed to her at the police station, her reply was "What on earth did you that for, Peter? Even a sparrow has a right to live.”

Although I do like to binge and I’ve now watched them all. I had to have a significant break between episodes. It was too harrowing to watch back to back episodes.

I'm not sure

I think it's just got it me this who got killed and how useless the police were

So many lives could have be. Saves if police were better at their jobs

I havent watched this episode yet.

I remember reading something horrible about the Jacqueline Hill murder that her handbag was found nearby with blood on it, handed to police and THEY DID NOTHING. She was lying only yards away on waste ground and she may have still been alive at that point. Imagine finding blood-stained women's possessions on the streets of Leeds at that time, and the police doing fuck all. Unbelievable.

I'm finding this gripping but irritating as the copper leading the investigation won't listen to anyone else's suggestions . Shame the original one, who's just died , was taken off the case , he seemed more clued up .

Jacqueline’s handbag was found by two students, one was Iranian. They saw it was blood stained and took it to the police who did nothing. The bag was found in the area where she was first attacked, he was disturbed and carried her to where she was eventually found to carry on the attack.
If the police had investigated whete the bag was found and surrounding area they could have found her alive but very seriously injured, the coroner said she could have been alive for several hours after the attack, however her injuries were shocking and brutal, hit with a hammer, stabbed numerous times and stabbed through the eye with a screwdriver. She may have been left brain damaged and blind in one eye.
The police were so blinkered they cost lives. The Wearside Jack tapes Oldfield was so convinced were genuine cost lives but the police were worse. They disregarded living victims who all said he had a local accent, was softly spoken, was dark haired with a beard. I don’t suppose those victims knew each other so couldn’t have got together to lie about him. Why would they?

That's awful @Daffodilsandtuplips

One other thing, the senior detective above Oldfield mentioned an agency had been contracted to do a publicity campaign re: the Wearside Jack tapes, he said it was costing £1.000.000, one million pounds! That was a hell of lot of money back then. I remember the campaign, it was on every radio station, TV station, newspapers, bill posters with transcripts of the tapes on lamp posts, wall, fences, even the cinema. And still no one recognised that voice. The three survivors were adamant it wasn’t the same man. Yet Oldfield still persisted he was right and they’re wrong.

I have just finished this. I am so angry by the police failings. Their arrogance is unbelievable, they could have stopped so many women being murdered.

Jaqueline was found where the Arndale Centre is now.

I know I am resurrecting, but I've now watched 'The Long Shadow' and 'This is Personal' is one of my favourite ever TV docu-series. I am so curious to know what Terrance Hawkshaw's actual alibi was as both programmes depict it very differently (in the Long Shadow a murder took place while he was under arrest and in the latter, they find a cinema ticket at his house proving his alibi for a different murder. I also really feel I need to know what happened to the poor lad to be honest! He apparently appeared in a documentary about his ordeal?

I'm from the area and have also worked for WYP. They're no better in their treatment of women now IME.

If I am honest, I preferred 'This is Personal' to 'The Long Shadow'. It just seems better written.

Heard a documentary on R4 about the case, it was interesting on the hoax tape. Police got forensic linguists to work on the voice, and they managed to pinpoint the origin of the accent to a very small area in Sunderland where Humble in fact came from. It was astounding I thought. Just a pity he wasn't actually the man they wanted.

I have also wondered what happened to him.

They persecuted that lad, broke all of the PACE rules (though I'm not sure if they were in force them - but even if not, I can't believe that keeping someone in their pyjamas, shoeless, lawyer less, and then dumping them in the street and not even taking them home, has ever been acceptable). And of course, all of the neighbours would have been nudging each other for the rest of his life - "No smoke" etc. It's easy to mock women like his mother who say "What will the neighbours think!" People were ostracised and their lives made a misery for less than this.

Even after this length of time I get angry on behalf of him as well as of those poor women and girls butchered by that foul man! Oldfield - what an arschloch! He was sure he had his man, ignored everybody's suggestions - and then he hadn't. Same with Wearside Jack - so sure he had his man, ignored everybody else, including the VICTIMS, FFS! and then he hadn't, and more women died, more families were devastated.

But it's the usual - A Man Has Spoken

I do wonder about Sutcliffes’s wife, it’s v hard to believe she didn’t know it was him. We were all told to question where a male relative was after a murder and be suspicious of everyone

I can't believe Marcella got £17,500 for her compensation then lost all her social security. Whilst the top chief of the police sold his story and made £40k. Disgusting

@snickersandmarsandbounty I really don't think she knew. She was schizophrenic and vulnerable. They'd not been married long. He'd have spun her a long line I think and she'd have not known how to navigate a marriage to someone like him.

There's a whole school of thought that don't believe Sutcliffe WAS the ripper. I try to not be drawn in to conspiracies but a lot of it is quite plausible on the surface at least.

@Emotionalsupportviper similar thing happened to someone I know and a lot more recent than this! Arrested while in bed, taken to PS in pjamas, dumped out on the street with no means of getting home. Would have been around the late 90s. Drugs related-nowhere near as serious an offence (but an offence nonetheless).

Oldfield meant well I thinkbut was just not up to the job-he was doddery and his brain was just not sharp enough.

@Meltinthemiddle that part is absolutely disgusting. She deserved much more than that money and then to have her other monies stopped.

www.yorkshireripper.com contains some interesting theories. I've not delved into it enough for an informed opinion,mind.

I don’t know, I was thinking about this yesterday when I was catching up on Mondays episode. DH has been away this week and he often is away. He is at work but he could be having a whole other life I wouldn’t know about. I’m not obviously suggesting he is; but he could be and I would not know.

I think it's very hard to think the man you love is a killer - most woman would say alibi their husband thinking no way he could attack and kill

Was there any violence in the marriage? I do wonder if she had a suspicion especially if he was working on the same dates of the murders. Was he a totally different person with her.

I've never seen any mentioned @Meltinthemiddle and I've shamedly been fascinated with this for a long time.

I think he probably manipulated her into believing his every word and took advantage of her mental illness.

I think I recall reading that Sonia attacked Sutcliffe occasionally and he had to restrain her. I mean, you'd hardly take his word for it, so God knows what the truth was. But she did suffer from schizophrenia so may have had violent outbursts.

Sutcliffe did come from a horrible brutal home with a thug of a father though.

@Emotionalsupportviper PACE is 1984 so not in force at the time. I think the reality was a bit less dramatic than in the drama but Dick Holland did admit later that the police sailed pretty close to the wind with how they treated Hawkshaw. They had to let him go eventually as there was no forensic evidence to link him to the killings but kept him under surveillance for a time until he was alibied.

After the last murder (Jacqueline Hill) Mrs Thatcher wanted to take personal charge of the investigation 😬I do wonder if there had been more senior policewomen at the time and less male egos throwing their weight around whether the investigation would have been different. by the end the whole thing was a complete mess with no clear focus and senior officers refusing to delegate, wading through routine admin instead of providing strategy.

@Judydoes2 I really enjoyed This is Personal, I must dig it out again. The actor who played Holland in that is also the voice of Peppa Pig's dad...

Flippin Virgin Tv with no subtitles. Watching in Ireland 3 days after it's aired in UK.
The sound is so poor it was like watching a silent movie.