REVIEW: The Long Shadow (S1 E7/7)

One of the more interesting elements of the Peter Sutcliffe case is the reaction of women across the north of England while he waged his murderous spree. When things became intolerable, the fear got too much and there was no end in sight to the investigation to find him, these women launched an extraordinary ‘Reclaim the Night’ campaign. They marched, they shouted, and they became heard. They had had enough.

By the end of the 1970s, everyone had had enough. There were families who were grieving and there were policemen and women at the end of their tether.

But unbeknown to everyone, the Ripper’s terrifying reign was coming to an end. Sutcliffe was picked up by police with a sex worker in his car backed into an alcove. His number plates were checked and did not match with his name, so he was brought in for questioning. However, before he was taken away he asked if he could relieve himself in the car park. As he went somewhere private, he disposed of his hammer.

There then followed an agonising back-and-forth with the police who brought Sutcliffe in and the investigation HQ, who won’t send anyone to the station to have a look. Thankfully the duty copper who interviewed Sutcliffe felt there was something wrong

There was genuine jeopardy in these scenes, and genuine suspense because we know who the perp is but the police don’t.

And so it continued, with most of the episode concerned with bringing Sutcliffe to justice. But not just that – this episode really wanted to confirm the fact that the police made an all-around hash of the investigation. From the way they treated survivors and victims to the suspects and the inherent, systematic sexism and misogyny on display throughout the investigation, to the very fact they more or less threw out the most basic police procedure and replaced it with suspect judgement. Lest we forget, Peter Sutcliffe was already in the system and had been interviewed before. NINE TIMES.

All these elements – as well as the stories surrounding the case (the feral socio-economic backdrop this series was placed in, the hoax tape, women taking back control of the streets etc) – made The Long Shadow a must-watch.

When this series was mooted, ITV made a big deal about the fact that this would be something different – a series that was going to focus more on the killer’s victims. When it did that The Long Shadow was a huge success because it provided much-needed human context to the whole story and humanised the young women whose lives were cruelly and brutally taken. And we haven’t even mentioned the families of the victims, whose lives were shattered forever.

The final scenes of this series finale really took time to show us how the families of Sutcliffe’s victims were doing today and how the whole trauma had affected their lives.

However, while there were good things – a lot of good things about this series – it more or less became a straightforward procedural when all said and done. Nothing wrong with that, but I was a bit disappointed because of the pre-transmission hype. It was atmospheric and well acted, with strong performances (Lee Ingleby, Toby Jones, Jill Halfpenny, Katherine Kelly David Morrissey et al), and some strong direction from Lewis Arnold.

I often wondered if I had come to the series fresh without knowing the whole story (and hadn’t already written a whole tranche of features on the subject during my day job), whether this would have affected me as much, or whether I’d have enjoyed it more. But, because I know the story, I can only say it was a solidly-made series and not the classic it arguably should have been.

Paul Hirons

Episode rating:

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Series rating:

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

READ MORE: OUR EPISODE ONE REVIEW

READ MORE: OUR EPISODE TWO REVIEW

READ MORE: OUR EPISODE THREE REVIEW

READ MORE: OUR EPISODE FOUR REVIEW

READ MORE: OUR EPISODE FIVE REVIEW

READ MORE: OUR EPISODE SIX REVIEW