This is about the brutal true story of the deaths of thirteen women, and several survived the brutality of his evil deeds, not just in Yorkshire and bordering towns and cities including Manchester, in north England by what was dubbed in the press as The Yorkshire Ripper.
The actors played the parts exceptionally well with great Yorkshire accents and the mannerisms displayed were just like the real people who were tasked with trying to capture the worst serial killer Britain had ever experienced.
The saddest part of this criminal case was that the women were murdered in cold blood, some of their children, husbands, parents, and other relatives didn't know that their loved one was going onto the streets to sell themselves for money, often to help with the daily cost of living and trying to support their children.
Listen to music through BOSE bluetooth headphones
Back in the 1970s viewpoints were a lot different and harsh where the majority of the public as well as in the governing institutions saw prostitutes as bringing it on themselves and that no decent women would choose to sell her body for money.
Prostitution is the oldest profession because everyone has a body to sell, and together with all of us having sexual desires, wants and needs it's easy to offer such services.
Most women even in today's society sell their bodies to support their children especially with cuts to social security, and yes, you do have some women who choose to become prostitutes for money and to travel the world, because they want a luxurious life and would not get that if they worked in a dead-end 9 to 5 job.
British policing in the 1970s was a lot different than it is today. Back then police officers and detectives would talk disrespectfully and shout and even exact physical violence not just on the criminally wicked, but on anyone who they thought needed a good slapping, punching, and kicking.
The misogynism is spot on when women had to do as they were told, regardless of being in public or private organisations, or even the housewife was supposed to be submissive to their husbands.
As the death's rose the human toll took its place as Assistant Chief Constable George Oldfield (David Morrissey) ended up having health problems due to the stress of trying to capture this animal or beast as the dubbed Yorkshire Ripper devastated the families of those he killed and gave a lifetime of pain and suffering to the women who miraculously survived his physical rampage on them.
The Long Shadow is based on the book Wicked Beyond Belief - The Hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper
The production got it meticulously spot on and the soundtrack really takes you back to the troubled and turbulent 1970s.
When Barbara Leach a Bradford university student who ironically wanted to work with prisoners was brutally murdered by The Yorkshire Ripper her fellow students organised a protest and the public mood started to turn against men and the need for men to have curfews and for mothers to teach their sons on how to treat women, so women would be much safer in the evenings.
An interesting observation is that if you do not care about the people at the lowest end of society then it will not be too long until those you deem respectful in society like children and women who do not prostitute themselves soon become victims themselves.
That is what happened when The Yorkshire Ripper targeted fourteen Tracey Browne who he viciously attacked, and then the pressure grows as the public think that The Yorkshire Ripper has not been caught and stopped his cold-blooded murderous rampage exceeding four years.
One thing that is interesting is that it wasn't that British policing and the detectives were not able and capable of catching The Yorkshire Ripper, because he was interviewed nine times before as a suspect, but it was the reliance on what became known as the hoax tape, which threw off the investigation and they shifted their eyes onto a man with a Geordie accent, who later turned out to be John Samuel Humble from Sunderland, who was caught in 2005, by a DNA sample taken after a public order offence in 2001, and sentenced to serve eight years in prison and died in 2019; rather than the softly spoken Yorkshire accent of the Yorkshire Ripper or known by his real name as Peter Sutcliffe.
All things came to an end and eventually all the evidence pointed to Peter Sutcliffe, and he was arrested, prosecuted, and sentenced to a whole life term, something that is not normally dished out apart from the worst criminal acts in British society.
If someone just thought rationally for one moment of receiving a whole life term in prison, they wouldn't want to commit such devastating and horrific crimes against someone, but then criminals never think rationally and are by nature insane to a lesser or greater degree.
Unfortunately, being in prison does not bring back the people they murdered and after the adrenaline has died down the families have to somehow live with the devastating loss, which is an emotional life sentence of grief in itself.
While Sutcliffe lived in a mental prison ward for the majority of his life, his wife and family had to endure the shame and public revulsion of having a truly despicable cold-blooded murderer in their family.
This is why the intelligence services say what they fear is the human mind and all of its evil and wicked aberrations locked inside itself.
Remember and this was mentioned in the storyline was that The Yorkshire Ripper looked and for majority of the day behaved normally, apart from in the evening when probably finishing work or popping out from his family home did his mental state started to falter and he went to the darkest and most evil and wick parts of his mind in order to carry out his brutal rampage against women he saw lesser in value, though he doesn't get to choose who is worthy only God gets to decide, though some may not be so philosophical or spiritually minded so will come up with the notion man is an animal, if that is the case then we are all doomed!
The Long Shadow can be difficult to watch as you feel the pain of the slain and the fallout their friends and families have to deal with in being left behind in the living world.
After Peter Sutcliffe finally got caught, he confessed to police of his involvement in the deaths of the 13 women and several survivors.
Dyson has the latest in technology appliances that can make your life efficient and easier
Because of the serious nature of this case and that mistakes were made there was a public inquiry into the failures so that they do not happen again.
George Oldfield as well as his superior Detective Chief Superintendent Dennis Toban (Toby Jones) and others involved in the Yorkshire Ripper case were put at fault and retired with a grey cloud over their careers in policing and in the public, not to mention the Prime Minister and politicians who looked down on this most sensitive and horrific case.
Richard McCann the son of Wilma McCann whose mother was the first victim of Peter Sutcliffe has become a well-known and international motivational speaker gave the name of this particular serialisation of the Yorkshire Ripper case, The Long Shadow when he was interviewed for local news and coined the term to summarise his take on this case and the fact that his mother and all of the other female victims were actual people who had actual lives.
Available on ITVX
The Long Shadow is based on book Wicked Beyond Belief - The Hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper
We are an independent digital magazine and welcome financial support to keep our digital web platform continuing our much valued work in promoting the latest entertainment and independent artists and bands across the world.
