Ripper Street, Series 1 - 3

A young woman is found brutally murdered, the hallmark signs of the Ripper upon her. One time H Division boss, Chief Inspector Frederick Abberline believes it Jack’s return, but Reid – the precinct’s new master – suspects a different evil at work.

A beloved toy maker is beaten to death for a mysterious brass box and the coins in his pocket. The Whitechapel Vigilance Committee presents 14 year old culprit who refuses to deny the charge, leading Reid into the savage world of merciless child gangs.

H Division and the independent City of London force are thrown together when the panic surrounding a sudden cholera outbreak leads them scour both boroughs, searching to find some underlying pattern amidst the rising tide of sickness and death.

The brutal clearing of a local slum for the underground railway reveals an almost indecipherable murder scene and an unreliable slum girl witness. Lucy Eames, beautiful and disturbed, is the unlikely key to a byzantine web of conspiracy.

A string of brilliantly masterminded robberies draw the attention of Reid and his team, while Drake is confronted with a spectre from his past in the form of his one time Colonel, returned to London to seek redress for the unjust treatment of the Empire’s soldiers.

As the dock strike of August ’89 takes hold of the city, the killing of a Jewish anarchist leads Reid and the team into the merciless chicanery of the British government’s fight against distant Empires and global terrorism.

An international shipping magnate arrives in town with his Pinkerton retinue to complete the acquisition of an ailing London shipping line. Meanwhile the murdered body of an engine inventor draws Reid’s attention just as Jackson and Susan’s past comes back to haunt them.

Reid is adrift – his team in pieces and Leman Street shaken to its foundations following recent events. A kidnapping offers him cause to assemble his men and tackle the white slavery ring operating in their midst. But Reid is gripped by a growing obsession that this leads back to a terrible secret from his own past.

When a sergeant from K Division is found, hurled from a Whitechapel window on to the iron railings below, Reid is quick to act. An investigation leads DI Reid and the H-Division to the newly emergent Chinatown - where Jackson discovers evidence of a new and devastatingly powerful opiate. Reid fears a new kind of hell is to be released on to his streets.

Only hours after she gave birth, a nameless young woman is found murdered in a stairwell at The London Hospital. The only suggestion of her identity is the strange protrusion at the base of her spine – a vestigial tail. This takes the team into the netherworld of circus freak shows and back to The London Hospital to seek help from its most celebrated resident, Joseph Merrick.

The abduction of a prominent member of the London County Council introduces Reid to Councilor Jane Cobden, the first woman appointed to the LCC – because it appears the kidnappers are radical supporters of Cobden’s aims. Long Susan is taken by force to the gang’s hideout and she soon finds herself growing sympathetic to her captors’ lives and aims.

An Irish dynamiter is sprung from prison and barely a day later a prominent opponent of The Home Rule movement is murdered. Chief Inspector Abberline is convinced that the Irish Republican Brotherhood is once more about its work and orders Reid to send the Irish DC Flight undercover into Whitechapel’s Irish community.

Investigations into the brutal slaying of a Telegraph Boy lift the lid on a vice racket run from the offices of the GPO. The case leads Reid to the heart of the one of the city’s most august financial institutions. Captain Jackson seeks ever more perilous means of ridding himself and Long Susan of the suffocating debt they owe Silas Duggan.

Churches and synagogues are being burnt and desecrated in Whitechapel and Reid suspects the same hand behind the various attacks. Meanwhile, the all-too-brief domestic happiness that Sergeant Drake has enjoyed is disrupted by the arrival of a friend from his wife Bella’s past, the mysterious and charismatic scholar, Gabriel Cain.

Captain Jackson’s reckless and untrustworthy elder brother arrives in Whitechapel carrying a valuable uncut diamond. Reid and Flight are drawn to the plight of a local craftsman defrauded of his income by a long-firm scam.Long Susan finds herself powerless to resist the ever-encroaching influence that Silas Duggan is determined to exert on her life.

As Reid and Drake find themselves powerless to resist the awful temptation of a final reckoning with K Division’s Jedediah Shine, so Jackson and Judge’s ever more desperate attempts to profit from that stolen diamond lead them into the teeth of the murderous agents of the De Graal monopoly.

Four years have passed. Time that has seen Reid, Drake and Jackson split and isolated from one another. But when the robbery of a goods train leads to a cataclysmic locomotive disaster on Leman Street itself, the men and their resentments, are reunited to seek its cause. Meanwhile, Long Susan has made good on her promise to take control of Obsidian Estates, and has turned it into a legitimate business of huge philanthropic ambition.

A routine murder inquiry in a curiosity shop reveals a secret underground cell. The murder itself may have links to Long Susan’s burgeoning property empire, Obsidian Estates, but Reid is far more concerned as to the identity and whereabouts of that cell’s prisoner, a young girl kept there for many years. It is an investigation which is to confront him with both his greatest shame; and his greatest hope.

Chief Inspector Abberline asks Drake to take over the helm of H Division. But Drake is far from keen to preside over his friend’s desk. The inexplicable death of a clairvoyant takes our team into a world of devious charlatans capitalizing on the grief of a sorrowful community. Further questions arise when Drake and Jackson meet a grieving widow, who unlocks the heart of a deceptive scheme.

As a lost girl wanders the dangerous streets of the East End alone, Detective Inspector Drake must try to find his old friend Edmund Reid and bring those responsible to justice. While there are still questions to answer about the death of Horace Buckley, the team of H Division unites to locate the girl.

A destructive gang of youths unleash hell upon the streets, but it’s not until daylight breaks that the true horror of their brutal work is revealed. The trail leads the team of H Division into the heartland of one of the city’s oldest trades - the London Breweries - where conflicted loyalties reign, and grief and anger create a potent concoction.

The dark and corrupt streets of Whitechapel are witnessing a new breed of tourist; one from the higher realms of society wanting salacious entertainment. Yet Lady Montacute’s curiosity means she now stands before the men of Leman Street charged with the vicious stabbing of a local woman. Over one long rainy night, H Division must unearth the true culprit before the weight of the authorities bears down upon them.

The murder of a chemist leads the team into the shadowy underworld of illegal abortionists and a backstreet racket which conceals a nefarious scheme. And when one of Long Susan’s business ventures is on the cusp of ruin, she realizes she needs to regain control – despite the patriarchy’s attempts to undermine her every effort.

An American journalist is killed in Whitechapel and his exclusive story threatens seismic consequences for Whitechapel residents. As the team of H Division inch ever nearer to the truth about the train robbery, the revelations expose some disturbing home truths, and life altering decisions have to be made.

A behind the scenes look at the making of Ripper Street.