Ripper Street Will Return News Gruesome hit drama is commissioned for a second series. Posted 29th January 2013, 3:51pm in TV (DIY)

The BBC have confirmed that period police drama Ripper Street will return for a second series next year.

The series, set in the Whitechapel area of Victorian London, has proved to be a hit with viewers,regularly attracting audiences of 7.1 million on average every Sunday night.

Starring Matthew Macfadyen (Pride and Prejudice), Jerome Flynn (Game of Thrones) and Adam Rothenberg (Person of Interest) the series is made by Tiger Aspect Productions and Lookout Point in association with BBC America.

Controller or BBC Drama Commissioning Ben Stephenson said, “quality and ambition run through Ripper Street, from Richard Warlow’s original scripts, the incredible cast and the captivating direction. All combine to create a period series with a modern and gripping edge that will return for a second series in 2014.”

READ MORE: http://www.thisisfakediy.co.uk/articles/television/ripper-street-will-return/

Jerome "Rocky" Flynn Puts His Dukes Up (ACCESS HOLLYWOOD)

http://watch.accesshollywood.com/video/jerome-flynn-puts-up-his-dukes-in-ripper-street/2099120104001

Matthew Macfadyen: Ripper Street to return for second series Gritty detective drama set in Victorian London starring Matthew Macfadyen has been a hit on BBC1 and BBC America (GUARDIAN)

http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/ripper%20street

Maggie Brown
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 29 January 2013 08.57 EST


BBC1 has ordered a second series of Ripper Street, the gritty Sunday night drama starring Matthew Macfadyen.

The BBC confirmed that a second, eight-part series was due for broadcast in 2014.

Ripper Street's first series, set in London's East End after the hunt for Jack the Ripper was called off in 1889, has averaged 7.1 million viewers and a 22.9% audience share so far, according to consolidated ratings including seven-day catchup viewing.

Macfadyen features as a police inspector, with Jerome Flynn as his sergeant colleague and Adam Rothenberg an American surgeon and former Pinkerton detective.

The first episode resulted in more than 90 viewers complaining about insensitive scheduling, because of the combination of sex and violence so close to the 9pm watershed.

But critics have praised the production, by Tiger Aspect and Look Out Point, for its authentic depiction of Victorian London, and gritty contrast to traditional costume dramas.

Ripper Street is a BBC Worldwide co-production which airs on BBC America, where it has been the US cable channel's most successful drama apart from Doctor Who.

READ MORE: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/jan/29/ripper-street-second-series

Review of Ripper Street ‘The Weight of One Man’s Heart’ By Neela Debnath (INDEPENDENT)

Charlene McKenna as Rose (BBC)

On this week’s installment of CSI: Whitechapel or “Ripper Street” as it is more commonly referred to, viewers were finally given an insight into Sergeant Drake’s dark past. There was of course the regular dose of sex, violence and anachronisms that come as standard with each episode.

Thus far Drake has been somewhat of a mystery to the audience and there have only been small hints of the man he used to be. During the lockdown at the orphanage in episode 2, Drake spoke about his nightmares and revealed a tattoo of an Egyptian goddess.

For those who may have wondered what lay beneath that cool, uptight and very proper Victorian exterior need wonder no longer. Drake was a former soldier who experienced all the horrors of war and more after slaying his captors when he was taken prisoner.

There is a reason he is Reid’s muscle and essentially tethered to a leash but it is a self-imposed restriction. Jackson may mock him for being too serious but perhaps he would be less cocky if he knew what Drake was capable and what he has done in the past.

It was a great story in terms of character development and the parallels it created between the treatment of veterans returning from the front line in the Victorian era and in 2013. It served as an interesting angle and way in for viewers. Drake’s former brother-in-arms Colonel Madoc Faulkner (Iain Glen) gave a fierce critique of the ‘reward’ former soldiers are given when they return home after serving. He made a compelling argument and raised an issue that applies both then and now.

READ MORE: http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/01/27/review-of-ripper-street-the-weight-of-one-mans-heart/

Matthew Macfadyen and Game of Thrones' Jerome Flynn Talk Ripper Street It’s a bloody good time on Ripper Street. by Roth Cornet JA (IGN)

http://ripperstreet.tumblr.com/

“A lot comes out about his past,” Flynn says of Drake. “He's this wounded boy from the lower class who had a broken childhood, and he's got a lot of demons he picked up from then and from fighting in Egypt in the war. So he's in battle with those parts of himself, and yet there's a real heart to the man, which gets melted by women.”

Flynn’s character has a particular affection for Reid that is tested both by Reid’s attachment to the American Jackson (whom Drake has a great disdain for) and the ghosts of his past rearing their less-than-savory heads.

“He had a Colonel from the army who he served and was extremely loyal to who comes back and tries to get him to cross over to the other side of the law,” Flynn says. “Inspector Reid has become a new father figure, so Drake has got really split loyalties. A lot of the soldiers, as they are now, come back having fought for their Kingdom and risking their lives and are not being looked after, and many end up on the street. A lot of the homeless, as today, come from the army, so that falls on him. He has to face these things that have been festering in him, and what he saw and what he went through in Egypt. As well as the fact that he's fallen in love with this prostitute and he's putting all of his eggs in that basket and setting himself up for a big fall. She kind of plays him along and uses him a bit. It's sad.”

All of the characters will be dealing with unfolding tales of woe, it seems.

“Reid has a painful journey,” Macfadyen says. “He has a lot of anger and sadness that he's bottled up to do with his family, and that's sort of revealed.” Reid has made a “huge error” with his daughter, who has gone missing, and must play that out over the series. There are hints that her disappearance may have something to do with the Ripper, but Macfadyen promises that the series will never offer a trite and manufactured “Ripper reveal.” Jack was never caught, and the premise of the show is to explore how his specter haunts the police and the East End community.

“Also, Jackson's background is fascinatingly dense; there are things that he's hiding from Reid,” The actor says. “Reid really likes him and wants him on his side. He doesn't really care that he's a whoring, untrustworthy American. He just thinks him brilliant. Drake and Jackson, on the other hand, hate each other from the get go. It becomes extremely problematic as the series goes on.”

READ MORE: http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/01/26/matthew-macfadyen-and-game-of-thrones-jerome-flynn-talk-ripper-street?abthid=51033677da590bf35100001b

‘Spies of Warsaw,’ Starring David Tennant, Has BBC AMERICA Premiere Date By staff | Posted on Thursday, January 24th, 2013 (BBC AMERICA)

David Tennant in ‘Spies of Warsaw’ (Photo: BBC AMERICA)

David Tennant is back on BBC AMERICA!

The channel has announced that its co-production Spies of Warsaw, the World War II-set miniseries which stars the former Doctor Who star, is set to premiere in the Dramaville block over two consecutive Wednesdays, April 3 and April 10, at 9/8c. The news comes on the heels of the announcement that Part 2 of Doctor Who Season 7 would premiere Saturday, March 30.

READ MORE: http://www.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/2013/01/spies-of-warsaw-starring-david-tennant-has-a-bbc-america-airdate/

Sherlock and Doctor Who go head-to-head in Television Awards 2013 Benedict Cumberbatch and Matt Smith go head to head for male performance and drama awards at tonight's National Television Awards. (TELEGRAPH)

Benedict Cumberbatch and Matt Smith are in direct competition in the 2013 National TV Awards. Photo: Guy Levy/BBC/PA

By Alice Vincent9:58AM GMT 23 Jan 2013


Tonight's National Television Awards will put Stephen Moffat creations Doctor Who and Sherlock head to head for the public vote. Both programmes are nominated for the drama and male drama performance categories, putting Benedict Cumberbatch and Matt Smith in competition.

Doctor Who did well at last year's awards, with Matt Smtih and co-star Karen Gillan picking up awards for most popular performance, male and female respectively. Despite leaving the show in September, Gillan is nominated again for female perfomance.

read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/9820253/Sherlock-and-Doctor-Who-go-head-to-head-in-Television-Awards-2013.html

'I Tried Generally Not F***ing Up': Matthew Macfadyen Talks About Ripper Street (E.)

With the success of British period drama Downton Abbey, the US audience are set for another treat from our fair isles in the form of Ripper Street.

With his role in the show an important part, actor Matthew Macfadyen has spoken to The Hollywood Reporter about his role, admitting that he "tried generally not f***ing up", on the show which is set in Victorian London.

Speaking of his role playing Inspector Edmund Reid, the actor revealed that Reid is "very free-thinking and forward-thinking.

"He was a very moral man. At the time, it was a different kind of morality."

READ MORE;  http://www.entertainmentwise.com/news/102070/I-Tried-Generally-Not-Fing-Up-Matthew-Macfadyen-Talks-About-Ripper-Street

Martin Freeman, Ricky Gervais outtakes from THE OFFICE

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PX9YDbXi7Vc

iamchipdouglas

Matthew Macfadyen - Ripper Street Offers Brand New Challenges for Matthew Macfadyen 20 January 2013 (CONTACT MUSIC)

Ripper Street Offers Brand New Challenges for Matthew Macfadyen

BBC America’s Ripper Street – a period series about a cop, tasked with solving crimes in 19th century London, post Jack the Ripper – premiered last night on BBC America.

Marking the occasion, Ripper Street star Matthew Macfadyen discussed the experience of working on the show and getting under the skin of his character and choosing to do a long-term project like the series. For New York Daily News Macfadyen explained that as an actor, he often feels the stress of not being offered work, and then at some point the scripts simply start to pour: “[W]hen the phone doesn’t ring for three weeks, you start thinking, ‘My God, I’ll never work again.’” For him, a long-term contract for a series offered some security in a profession, where stability is inherently lacking.

READ MORE: http://www.contactmusic.com/news/ripper-street-offers-brand-new-challenges-for-matthew-macfadyen_3459775

Ripper Street episode 4 review: The Good Of This City Review Jamie-Lee Nardone (DEN OF GEEK)

The Eighth Doctor, aka Paul McGann, tips up on Ripper Street this week. Here's Jamie-Lee's review...

This review contains spoilers.

1.4 The Good Of This City

Our bloody and brutal Ripper Street has made its way across the pond to BBC America, where it's been the subject of much hype and media attention. Matthew Macfadyen, who plays the lead role of Detective Inspector Reid, has been cited in the papers defending the gore and smut, while Jerome Flynn who plays his right-hand man, Detective Sergeant Drake, has come out with some prime material guaranteed to give the readers of middle-England a touch of the vapours: what was he up to for those lost eight years of his career between Badger and Tommy Cooper and before Game of Thrones and Ripper Street? Well, he was in a sort of religious cult, run by the son of the actor who plays Ken Barlow in Coronation Street. Obviously.

And yes, there's also been the predictable backlash to the BBC's new series. Is it too violent to be shown at 9pm? Is the gore unnecessary? Is it sexist? Quite frankly I bite my thumb at these articles. Ripper Street is offering something new and exciting to our Sunday night rituals of cosy period drama TV viewings. Is it disrupting it? Oh yes.  Happily so. And each episode so far has been unique, pushing boundaries with very different storylines and enticing us with enriched understanding of the interesting lead characters and dazzling us with shiny cameos.

The Good of This City is no different. This week’s episode focuses on various scientific and social developments that were extremely experimental at the time; psychiatry and electricity on the underground. Of course, these are merely backdrops for some gothic and grisly murders and a young girl named Lucy perturbed by her ‘darkness’.

Episode four opens with Long Susan (MyAnna Buring) welcoming a new ‘tart’ to her remarkably salubrious whorehouse, making it sound as though she’s about to enter the Shangri-La. We’ve seen a tough side to Susan’s character through her brief appearances, but are waiting to scratch beneath the surface. Then in walks Lucy, once renowned for being the prettiest prostitute in Tenter Street, who goes to the pint-sized Madame seeking a job. For reasons unknown, she is refused and proclaims that she knows not what will become of her. It’s a fairly bleak and hypocritical moment, with Susan reminding them both (and the audience) that men have created a world in which women are designed for their pleasure from which they can profit. All the while, Susan is there running a brothel at a sixty percent cut. However, in this episode we see how far she really will go to protect her girls.


READ MORE: http://www.denofgeek.com/tv/ripper-street/24163/ripper-street-episode-4-review-the-good-of-this-city

Matthew Macfadyen talks 'Ripper Street' and 'Anna Karenina' New BBC America drama premieres on Saturday night BY DANIEL FIENBERG SATURDAY, JAN 19, 2013 3:33 AM (HIT FIX)

Like many a British thespian, Matthew Macfadyen has reliably bounced back and forth between the big screen and television, whether wooing Elizabeth Bennett in "Pride & Prejudice" or battling international intrigue in "MI-5."

Fresh off a well-received supporting turn as Oblonsky in Joe Wright's "Anna Karenina" this winter, Macfadyen is back on TV on Saturday (January 19) night fighting crime in Victorian England in BBC America's "Ripper Street."

During the Television Critics Association press tour this month, I sat down with MacFadyen to talk about his role as Detective Inspector Edmund Reid on "Ripper Street," which was created by Richard Warlow and co-stars Jerome Flynn and Adam Rothenberg. We also talked a bit about Wright's highly theatrical Tolstoy adaptation, as well as his creative process.

Click through...

HitFix: I know you said on the panel that it was the script that attracted you, but what was the kernel that piqued your interest?

Matthew Macfadyen: It's the whole thing, I think. I wasn't a kernel. It was the writing, the character, the idea of doing a series sorta appealed and it took me by surprise, because it wasn't my plan to do another series. I wasn't looking for a series to do and it just sorta ticked a lot of boxes and it was... yeah.


HitFix: How much was it that you didn't want to do a series and you were surprised to find one that appealed to you and how much was it just that you weren't specifically looking to do another series?

Matthew Macfadyen: I just read it like this [he mimes flipping through the pages swiftly] and thought, "This is fabulous." That's the acid test, whether you want to read it and want to be in it.


HitFix: It seems like there are these rules that America actors often seem to stick to, like "I don't want to do television, I want to do..." And British actors seem not to feel bound by that same restrictions. And that always seen a little odd.

Matthew Macfadyen: Yeah. I feel like an actor. I'm not a movie actor or a theater actor. I'd like to work in all three mediums.


HitFix: But when you have a pile of scripts, does your eye go to what medium an individual project is destined for?

Matthew Macfadyen: No. A little bit. You sorta factor it in. It's a combination of practicalities and the script and also how much it's going to stretch you or how different it is to the thing you've done most recently. Those kinds of things.


HitFix: So tell me about how the character here, about how Reid stretched you from the thing you did previously?

Matthew Macfadyen: Well, what was the last thing I did? I'd played this buffoon in a movie before that, so it was a very different kind of character. He's quite a solid detective part. I just wanted to be part of the show.


HitFix: Is this a time period that you have an interest in? Or does that factor into your decision?

Matthew Macfadyen: Sure. Yeah. More and more I found it fascinating and I looked at a lot of... I spent hours looking at photographs before we started shooting and during the shoot, which I found endlessly fascinating. You're sorta looking to see how different it is, because I know the streets, I know the area where we were shooting, so it's fascinating life. They had these big pictures of London life in the period. So... ummm... Yeah. It's all interesting stuff.


HitFix: Where were you doing this research?

Matthew Macfadyen: At home on my computer.


HitFix: Just Googling...

Matthew Macfadyen: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.


HitFix: How does that kind of research inform you when you're actually putting together the character, what you can learn from looking at pictures?

Matthew Macfadyen: I don't know. I don't know how my performance would have been any different had I not looked at the photographs, but it's just interesting. You can't play "research." You can kind of have ideas, but it was just sort of interesting and allows your imagination to work, I suppose.

Read more at http://www.hitfix.com/the-fien-print/matthew-macfadyen-talks-ripper-street-and-anna-karenina#5GpDdYDQ06hqVFrM.99 

Ripper Street British Import With Sex and Sleuths By MIKE HALE (NEW YORK TIMES)

Setting a cop show in the slums of East London in 1889 gives you several advantages. Violence, for one: Among the first things we see in “Ripper Street,” a new British drama beginning on Saturday night on BBC America, is an undercover policeman pausing during a bare-knuckle fight to pull an opponent’s tooth out of his hand.


Sex, for another: the two most prominent female characters in the show are prostitutes, or tarts (“taaarts”), in the language of the time. The first episode predictably joins these elements by making a tart the target of violence.

This is not to condemn “Ripper Street,” which has its satisfactions, but to indicate the mind-set at work. As a period police procedural, it’s more successful than “Copper,” set in 1860s New York and also shown on BBC America. But it’s not that much more imaginative; someone wanted a late-Victorian “Law & Order,” and that’s what was delivered.

“Ripper Street” is, however, reasonably clever and sometimes even witty in its depictions of forward-thinking detectives pioneering the forensic methods and investigative procedures that will eventually become the grist for a thousand television shows. And in Jerome Flynn, Adam Rothenberg and particularly Matthew Macfadyen, it has a sharp and appealing group of actors to play its central cop triangle.

The undisputed star of the show is Mr. Macfadyen as Edmund Reid, a detective inspector with crusading instincts who wants both to modernize and to humanize the police force. But he’s not the all-seeing, Holmesian genius so prevalent in current shows, who acts out for 45 minutes before single-handedly solving the mystery.

In a moderately interesting twist, “Ripper Street” splits the glory between Reid and Homer Jackson (Mr. Rothenberg), an American and former Pinkerton agent who has come to London, fleeing some dark secret in his past. Deputized by Reid, Jackson supplies most of the close analysis of fibers, skin and gaping wounds (typically on the bodies of young women, of course) while tweaking the more old-fashioned sensibilities of Reid’s stalwart sergeant, Drake (Mr. Flynn, known here for playing the warrior Bronn in “Game of Thrones”).

The fun of the show comes partly from the interplay among these actors, and partly from the way it juxtaposes the muck and murderousness of the East End shortly after the days of Jack the Ripper (hence the title) with the onset of the modern world.


READ MORE: http://tv.nytimes.com/2013/01/19/arts/television/ripper-street-with-matthew-macfadyen-on-bbc-america.html

Adam Rothenberg Fights Crime On Ripper Street (Access Hollywood)

ACCESS HOLLYWOOD

Jerome Flynn Puts Up His Dukes In Ripper Street (ACCESS HOLLYWOOD)

ACCESS HOLLWOOD

Matthew Macfadyen On The Joys Of Period Pieces & His Fancy Bowler Hat (Access Hollywood)

Access Hollywood

Ripper Street - 9/8c BBC America, Premiere's January 19

'Ripper Street' Stars Macfadyen, 1880s London by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS January 18, 2013 5:42 PM (NPR)

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — Matthew Macfadyen is perfectly presentable in jeans and a crewneck sweater that coordinates nicely with the blue of his eyes.

But the look is far from the elegant attire he wore as Mr. Darcy opposite Keira Knightley's Elizabeth in the 2005 film "Pride & Prejudice." And his posture is just as casual, which he acknowledges might offend the aristocratic character's diehard fans.

"You're slouching! What are you doing? Stand up straight, man!" Macfadyen says, teasing himself.

He looks back fondly on what he calls the "iconic" role drawn from Jane Austen's novel. But the British actor who's also known to audiences for his part as an intelligence officer in the series "MI-5" ("Spooks" in the U.K.) welcomes the chance to switch gears.

"I, as most actors, want to mix it up and do different things. Otherwise it gets boring and tiresome, not only for yourself but for everyone else seeing you do the same kind of thing," he said. "The joy of being an actor is to play different parts, do something different."

Macfadyen's latest chance for diversity comes in "Ripper Street," an 1880s police drama set on the gritty and untamed streets of London's East End around the period that serial killer Jack the Ripper terrorized the area.

The series, starring Macfadyen as Detective Inspector Edmund Reid, debuts Saturday (9 p.m. EST) on BBC America after starting its British run this month. BBC America is home to another rough-and-tumble, 18th-century police drama, "Copper," set in 1860s New York City and the channel's first original scripted series.

The mysterious and brutal Jack the Ripper has been recycled throughout pop culture in films including 1979's "Time After Time" and 2001's "From Hell" with Johnny Depp. But series creator Richard Warlow said the killer is a backdrop and invisible character for "Ripper Street."

"What we wanted to do really was to tell stories about the streets down which he walked and committed his crimes in the wake of those terrible murders," Warlow said, "and how it affected the community and, most importantly, the police that tried and failed to catch him."

Each episode will include what he called a "stand-alone crime" as well as pull at the thread of Reid's life, including those surrounding him at work and at home.


READ MORE: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=169740291

Ripper Street - Matthew Macfadyen interview (premieres January 19 at 9:00 ET - BBC America)

http://www.bbcamerica.com/ripper-street/videos/inspector-reid/

'Ripper Street' review: Complex characters David Wiegand Updated 4:34 pm, Wednesday, January 16, 2013 (SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE)

As in the original BBC America production "Copper," which is set in New York in the 1860s, early forensic science plays a key role in helping Reid and his team solve crimes. In "Copper," Kevin Corcoran (Tom Weston-Jones) enlists the help of a free slave who is also a doctor, Matthew Freeman (Ato Asandoh), to solve crimes, just as Reid dragoons Jackson here to work on murder cases with him.

The similarities between the two shows don't end there. Corcoran is haunted by the murder of his young daughter, while Reid and his wife, Emily (Amanda Hale), have lost their young daughter as well. Each show also features a cooperative brothel owner, grittily detailed production values and florid, penny-dreadful dialogue.

By the second episode, show creator Richard Warlow ("Mistresses") is borrowing a bit of Charles Dickens in the story of a street urchin convicted of murdering an elderly toy maker and sentenced to die on the gallows in three days. The boy is one of a group of street kids in the employ of a Fagin-like character, who's really much more of a Bill Sikes and out to spring the boy so he can shut him up before he tells the authorities too much. Meanwhile, Reid and his team have to keep the rabid citizen Whitechapel Vigilance Committee from shortstopping the kid's trip to the gallows themselves.

Although each episode focuses on a particular crime, we're hooked as much by the characters and what we still don't know about them. Edmund and Emily have a strained marriage, although they both seem to love each other. He buries the grief over the loss of his daughter in his work, while she spends every waking hour in church. Homer and Long Susan have both turned up in London after escaping some yet-to-be-defined incident back in the United States, which may have involved a name and identity change for Jackson. He can be an invaluable asset to Reid on a murder case, but he's not to be trusted.

"Ripper Street" boasts superb performances, cast and production values, and, beyond the copycat elements, thoughtfully written scripts loaded with surprises and a compellingly complicated moral base: Virtually all the characters are a credible mix of strengths and flaws.

READ MORE: http://www.sfgate.com/tv/article/Ripper-Street-review-Complex-characters-4199509.php#photo-4036998

Victorian sex & violence is gRIPPING - Says Matthew MacFadyen (THE SUN)

EXCLUSIVE By LAURA ARMSTRONG

MATTHEW MacFADYEN has defended Ripper Street against claims it is too graphic – insisting that most Brits RELISH Victorian sex and violence.

Nearly 90 viewers have complained since the BBC1 crime series, set in east London in the Jack The Ripper era, started two weeks ago.

But former Spooks actor Matthew, who plays detective inspector Edmund Reid, reckons the gritty reality shown on screen is an essential part of the show’s appeal.

He told TV Biz: “I think people are fascinated by Victorian attitudes towards sex and society. And back then in the East End there was enormous poverty.

“Actually, it was the Ripper murders that brought to light the dire poverty in the East End. They showed them up to a greater audience.”

He added: “Ripper Street is a very original thing really. The script grabs you because it is bombastic, big and colourful and grimy as well. There’s lots of stuff in there.

“And being able to go back to seedy Whitechapel is brilliant.

“The show designer is a supremely talented man and his team have been fantastic.

“All of the sets are as it was back then. There’s a toymaker’s shop, a pub, an orphanage and an asylum and all kinds of different things, so it’s great.”

He said: “My character, Reid, is a very dedicated and forward-thinking policeman. What I find interesting is that there’s nothing jaded about him.

“I wanted to get away from the classic ‘seen it all, done it all’ copper and he’s definitely not that.

“He’s progressive and interested in the innovations of the age.

“But he has also got quite a lot of anger and a fairly dark past.

READ MORE: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/4746229/exclusive-matthew-macfadyen-defends-bbc-drama-ripper-street.html