Quick Overview

Is Jack the Ripper still on the loose in the streets of Whitechapel? That’s the premise behind the sensational BBC drama Ripper Street, a police procedural and forensic investigation serial that’s more than a century ahead of its time–if TV and gritty, realistic cop shows had existed in 1889, that is. Matthew Macfadyen is Detective Inspector Edmund Reid, a forward-thinking lawman in charge of H Division in squalid East London, where it has been six months since his department investigated the last murder committed by the notorious serial killer. But since Reid does not know that the last murder was the Ripper’s final strike, the city has no reason to believe that he is not still at large. So when a gruesome crime is discovered that bears some of the hallmarks of Jack’s M.O., panic grips Whitechapel again, and it is Inspector Reid’s job to rule out the Ripper even as he’s forced to relive the trauma of his unsolved investigation. This eight-part series was broadcast on BBC America in 2012 to much acclaim for its attention to period detail at the end of the Victorian era as well as for its unflinching exploration of the seedy underbelly of London’s most sordid slum. Ripper Street has been described as a 19th-century Law & Order, CSI, or Criminal Minds, and it does share the same adherence to the procedural methods of great cop shows. But it is much richer for its use of colorfully idiomatic language, wit, intelligence, and a sensibility that’s closer to HBO or a feature film than it is to network TV. Each episode focuses on the thorough investigation of a horrific murder (or murders). There is also an arc that follows an unfolding interconnectedness between characters, as well as the larger issue of whether the Ripper is gone and who he might have been. Assisting Reid in his police work is his loyal, tough-as-nails aide Detective Sergeant Bennet Drake (Jerome Flynn), and a shady American surgeon and ex-Pinkerton agent Captain Homer Jackson (Adam Rothenberg). Jackson turns out not to be all he says he is; the same goes for his close associate Long Susan (MyAnna Buring), a mysterious brothel owner who figures prominently in the show’s larger thematic development. Reid and Jackson share an uneasy friendship and professional respect built primarily on the inspector’s cleverness in police work and the doctor’s keen mind for forensic examination.

Main Features:

Actors: Matthew Macfadyen, Jerome Flynn, Adam Rothenberg, Amanda Hale, MyAnna Buring
Directors: Andy Wilson, Tom Shankland
Writers: Richard Warlow, Julie Rutterford, Toby Finlay, Declan Croghan
Producers: Stephen Smallwood, Colm McCarthy
Format: Multiple Formats, Box set, Color, Widescreen, NTSC, Subtitled
Language: English (Stereo)
Subtitles: English
Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. )
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Number of discs: 3
Studio: BBC Home Entertainment
DVD Release Date: March 12, 2013
Run Time: 450 minutes