Sundance Now presents series The Long Shadow, telling the story of the Yorkshire Ripper investigation
By Carla Davis
Most devoted followers of true crime are familiar with The Yorkshire Ripper (AKA Peter Sutcliffe), who was convicted in 1981. Sutcliffe was charged with 13 murders and 7 attempted murders, and was dubbed The Yorkshire Ripper, an allusion to the infamous Jack the Ripper of Victorian England. If you want to know more about the story, Sundance Now and AMC+ are dropping a new series called The Long Shadow.
It all began in 1969, when Sutcliffe followed a sex worker into her garage and hit her over the head with a rock. The woman declined to press charges, and in 1975, he began his reign of terror in Manchester and West Yorkshire.
The first episode of The Long Shadow will debut on Sundance Now and AMC+ on Thursday, March 21. Subsequent episodes will air each week on Thursdays.
Here is the episode breakdown:
March 21:
Episode 1 - A woman is murdered in Leeds, and the police work hard to apprehend her killer with no results.
Episode 2 – As more vicious murders occur, police begin to suspect that the murders may have been committed by a serial killer. Meanwhile, there is a survivor of the Ripper’s attack.
March 28:
Episode 3 – Another young woman is murdered, and a female officer goes undercover as a sex worker to try and catch the killer.
April 4:
Episode 4 – A victim survives an attack by the Ripper, and a driver in Leeds comes up as a suspect.
April 11:
Episode 5 – As the number of murders ramps up, police re-investigate similar attacks from the recent past, attempting to find more victims. The killer writes a letter to Assistant Chief Constable George Oldfield.
April 18:
Episode 6 – The police department is in upheaval as detectives question the evidence and begin to have doubts about the direction the investigation is headed in.
April 25:
Episode 7 – Peter Sutcliffe is finally arrested, and as his trial approaches, people begin to understand how the initial investigation failed so badly.