Review: BBC TV Show ‘Whitechapel’

Detective Inspector Joseph Chandler’s (Rupert Penry-Jones) idea of climbing to the top the of the police promotion ladder is to wear Savile Row suits and sip cappuccinos and the occasional whisky at his club. A more serious part of the ladder, however, is to perform a leadership role guiding his staff to solve crimes.

Called away from a cozy evening at his club, he’s driven to the site of the latest gruesome murder. His scruffy team has already arrived. They feel his appearance dressed in “black-tie” a joke and their ridicule of him begins. He struggles to keep his stomach under control as he views a corpse for the first time. His only hope is a homeopathic remedy for tension – to rub mint pomade on his temples.

The mockery continues the next morning as he attempts to gain support from his team at a staff meeting. His greatest adversary is their former leader, the 20-year veteran Detective Sergeant Ray Miles (Phil Davis). The crime’s sole eyewitness only vaguely recalls seeing a dark figure in the shadows wearing a floppy hat and apron; otherwise the police only know the name of the victim. Where to begin?

Eventually another witness appears who, in great detail, faithfully describes the what, how, where and when of the murder. He is the noted tour guide, author and Jack the Ripper historian, Edward Buchan (Steve Pemberton). When questioned how he is so knowledgeable of the event, he merely shrugs and says he’s reciting verbatim from a 1888 police report on the second Jack the Ripper murder.

Based on his extensive research, Buchan predicts the next murders. With no other leads to investigate, Buchan becomes Chandler’s aide-de-camp. Believing his hypothesis, the police try to intervene at the site in time to save the next victim, but they fail. The only thing anyone can agree on is that they have a Jack the Ripper copycat who must be stopped before the public finds out and becomes frightened.

Chandler’s superiors exert pressure on him to bring closure. Another savage murder takes place as was predicted by Buchan. Frantic for a lead to the murderer, Buchan himself is arrested and jailed as the prime suspect.

With a warrant to search his home, the police arrive at his door, greeted by his mother. She has no idea what is behind the locked door to the cellar. “It’s his study and I’ve never been in there” she explains. The police remove the lock and descend the stairs to enter a huge workspace filled with Ripper information. Aha, they have their perpetrator! They are sure until they open Buchan’s computer and closely examine his Ripper Information website.

The site is filled with correspondence from the “Ripper-curious.” There is one correspondent, however, a David Cohen (alias), who has asked the most and also the most detailed queries of all, even going into the color of each victim’s hair. The next victim has red hair.

Whitechapel is directed by S. J. Clarkson (Credits: Bad Girls, Banshee ) and is a “should see” production with an entertaining lesson on how much we can learn and benefit from studying history.

johan@beachcomber.news