Recently Sunday night has been THE night to stay in and watch telly with Mr Selfridge on ITV and Ripper Street on BBC One.
Ripper Street was one of my top telly tips for the year ahead and let's just say the series did not disappoint. Great settings, great performances and ultimately great stories have kept the show well above the 5 million mark for that past three week's in a row.
Ripper Street stars Matthew Macfadyen as Detective Inspector Edmund Reid, Jerome Flynn as Detective Sergeant Bennett Drake and Adam Rothenberg and Captain Homer Jackson.
Jack The Ripper. It's a tale that's been told a million times right? Right, except not in the way Ripper Street tells it, or rather doesn't tell it.
Set some six months after the Jack The Ripper murders, the series doesn't retell the story most of us are already all too familiar with but rather follows Whitechapel police as they fight to bring the law to the lawless in the wake of Jack The Ripper. A real strong point of the series I feel.
Following on from three very strong episodes, The Good of This City sees the brutal clearing of a local slum reveal an almost indecipherable murder scene and an unreliable slum girl witness, Lucy Eames.
Lucy Eames is played by Emma Rigby who, for those of you who have read my piece about Prisoners' Wives will know I have a lot of time for. Since leaving Hollyoaks she has gone on to have a great career in a variety of different roles her latest being a
Yet again Emma gives an incredible performance as a beautiful and disturbed young lady who comes back to reclaim her role as prettiest prostitute in Tenter Street. However Long Susan (played by MyAnna Buring) rejects her return.
Lucy is the unlikely key to a byzantine web of conspiracy that appears to entangle London councillor Stanley Bone, played by Paul McGann. In the episode she roams the street covered in blood with something to hide. A murder perhaps? Is she hiding a secret for somebody? If so who is she protecting by not revealing all?
Having already seen the episode and the past three I can't recommend this series enough. The production is so slick and if you like good quality British drama then Ripper Street certainly delivers on that front... and more.
I'm sure the remaining four episodes will be just as strong and I for one can't wait to see what else goes on in Ripper Street.