The Long Shadow (TV Mini Series) Episode #1.1 (2023) User Reviews

A bleak story, presented with modern day sensitivities.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 6/10 · 10 December 2023]

Wilma McCann vanishes, her body is found, and DCS Dennis Hoban launches an investigation to find her killer. Housewife Emily Jackson is forced into prostitution to make ends meet.

It's very well made, and it's a very gripping piece of television, but it feels like a work of fiction. There's just one thing I have to get off my chest first of all, I've seen several dramas and documentaries, and at no point have The Police come across as sensitive, and definitely not keen to look for the killer of a prostitute, it just doesn't feel like reality, it's as if cops from 2023 were on thr case.

It's well acted and well presented, I think Toby Jones has done a good job.

I like the news clips at the start, helps to give context, and detail how hard it was for people, people were genuinely on the breadline, and as Emily had to, pushed to extremes to survive.

6/10.

Time to leave the dead alone

[ShadeGrenade · 3/10 · 30 September 2023]

I agree with most of what Prismark10 has said. We have already had numerous documentaries about the Yorkshire Ripper, and now someone has decided to turn the story into entertainment. Which, frankly, is obscene. We are living in a strange world indeed. Any day now, we will be seeing Steve 'Alan Partridge' Coogan as Jimmy Saville. I think I can live without that.

As has been pointed out, there was a similar series made in 2000 ( which everyone seems to have forgotten about ). I wonder how long it will before we get a stage musical based on the story. Primark10 says that sexism was rife in the police force in the 70's. Maybe, but not as much as it is now. The Casey Report ( published earlier this year ) proves this.

The hidden agenda seems to be to indulge in a spot of finger-wagging about the era in which the murders took place. Mistakes were made in the investigation, but they still happen today. Look at the case of Lucy Letby. In the 21st century, there is a real danger of Peter Sutcliffe becoming a hero to the young in the same way Wayne Couzens and Raoul Moat have managed to become.

It is time to let Sutcliffe's victims rest in peace.

Episode 1

[Prismark10 · 5/10 · 25 September 2023]

Billed as a poignant and sensitive look at some of the victims of the Yorkshire Ripper. The cynical side of me remains unconvinced.

There was an ITV drama from 2000 called This Is Personal: The Hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper. I am not sure this adds much.

Directed by Lewis Arnold who also made the drama Des about serial killer Dennis Nielsen. Written by George Kay who also wrote Litvinenko.

The first episode has housewife Emily Jackson (Katherine Kelly) turning to prostitution in order to make ends meet. The beginning of the program making it clear that the mid 1970s had the country was facing a cost of living crisis.

Meanwhile DCS Dennis Hoban (Toby Jones) is investigating the death of another sex worker Wilma McCann. Her children were worried that their mother had not returned home. We never learned more about Wilma. Dead as soon as the opening credits finished.

I can tell at seven parts this is going to be too dragged out. Jones was already doing his wistful po faced long stares as soon as the episode got going.

Even the dialogue was unbelievable. West Yorkshire police getting sensitive about dead prostitutes. Give me a break. Sexism was rampant in the police force, it is only marginally better in 2023.

Even as a child I can recall from the news shows that there were some kind of deserving and undeserving victims of the Yorkshire Ripper. The undeserving ones were women who were not prostitutes.

The victims were shortchanged by the police and the media. I cannot see how The Long Shadow redresses the balance. The truth was there was a lot of police incompetence. This drama might already be rewriting history.