Jack The Ripper (miniseries)

''Jack the Ripper'' is a 1988 Anglo-American co-production by Thames Television and CBS television film drama based on the notorious Jack the Ripper murder spree in Victorian London. It was first broadcast on ITV.

The film was produced to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Whitechapel murders, and was originally screened on British television in two 90-minute episodes, broadcast on consecutive evenings, in October 1988, to coincide with the dates of some of the original events, advertising itself in advance as a solution to the century-old mystery of the murderer's identity using newly discovered original evidence.

Plot

London, autumn 1888. Chief Inspector Frederick Abberline of Scotland Yard is assigned by his superiors to investigate the murder and brutal mutilation of a prostitute in the East End of London. As the mutilated corpses of other "shilling whores" turn up in the same area, London's tabloid journalists – particularly Benjamin Bates of ''The Star'' – whip up a public frenzy. The killer is nicknamed "Jack the Ripper" after a letter bearing that name and supposedly from the killer, is forwarded to Scotland Yard. As the Ripper terrorizes London, public outrage erupts throughout the country, and Police Commissioner Sir Charles Warren fears that a revolution is in the air in London's East End.

There is no shortage of suspects for Abberline and his partner, Sergeant George Godley. These suspects include the American actor Richard Mansfield (appearing in the play ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'' in London); police surgeon Dr Henry Llewellyn; socialist agitator George Lusk; Queen Victoria's clairvoyant Robert Lees; the Queen's grandson Prince Albert Victor; and Dr Theodore Dyke Acland, the son-in-law of Sir William Gull, Royal Surgeon to Queen Victoria and expert on diseases of the brain. The police and the authorities want the murders solved at any cost, but Abberline and Godley face huge obstacles as they search for the truth – and hindrance from their superiors when the killer is finally unmasked.

Cast

* Michael Caine – Chief Inspector Frederick Abberline, an aging alcoholic whose quest to solve the murders gives him the strength to give up drinking
* Lewis Collins – Sergeant George Godley
* Armand Assante – Richard Mansfield, American Stage actor in the theatrical play ''Jekyll and Hyde''
* Ray McAnally – Sir William Gull, Physician-in-Ordinary to Queen Victoria
* Ken Bones – Robert James Lees, Queen Victoria's psychic medium
* Susan George – Catherine Eddowes, fourth victim of Jack the Ripper
* Jane Seymour – Emma Prentiss
* Harry Andrews – Coroner Wynne Baxter
* Lysette Anthony – Mary Jane Kelly, fifth and last victim of Jack the Ripper
* Gerald Sim – Dr. George Bagster Phillips
* Hugh Fraser – Commissioner of Police Sir Charles Warren
* Edward Judd – Chief Superintendent of Police Thomas Arnold
* George Sweeney – Coach driver John Netley
* Michael Gothard – George Lusk, Chairman of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, and a violent Marxist and power-hungry politician
* T. P. McKenna – T. P. O'Connor, Editor of ''The Star'' newspaper
* Jon Laurimore – Inspector John Spratling
* Peter Armitage – Sgt. Kerby
* Richard Morant – Dr. Theodore Dyke Acland, son-in-law of Sir William Gull
* Ronald Hines – Henry Matthews, Home Secretary
* David Swift – Lord Salisbury, Prime Minister
* Jonathan Moore – Benjamin Bates, reporter for the Star
* Michael Hughes – Dr. Llewellyn, Chief Medical Examiner of Whitechapel
* Gary Shail – Billy White, a Whitechapel pimp
* Angela Crow– Elizabeth Stride, third victim of Jack the Ripper
* Marc Culwick – Prince Albert Victor
* David Ryall – Bowyer, Mary Kelly's landlord
* Gary Love – Derek, a young police officer
* Kelly Cryer – Annette, a French girl and friend of Mary Jane Kelly
* Roger Ashton-Griffiths – Rodman, a blind brothel operator in Whitechapel

Production

''Jack the Ripper'' presents a fictionalised portrayal of Frederick Abberline, with details of his personal life (including alcoholism and his relationship with artist "Emma Prentiss") invented via dramatic licence. (In real-life, at the time of the Ripper murders, Abberline was married to Emma Beament, the daughter of a merchant. In ''Jack the Ripper'', Emma Prentiss is not married to Abberline.) Furthermore, the series' portrayal of Abberline unmasking the Ripper as William Gull contradicts the fact that the real-life Abberline believed that the Ripper was actually George Chapman. George Lusk of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee was depicted in the film as a violent, argumentative troublemaker when in fact he was very quiet, a good local business man who was known for his peaceful nature, a churchwarden and a Freemason. Hugh Fraser wore clothing that his character, Sir Charles Warren, had actually worn. This was both Harry Andrews and Edward Judd's last production. Armand Assante's stand-in died during filming. Of her experience filming ''Jack the Ripper'', Jane Seymour said, "That was fun. I played it as a redhead, it was a great role, and of course I got to work with the great Michael Caine. I had been warned that Michael is tough on actors and actresses unless they know their lines and are very professional, which mostly I was, but they didn’t tell me that he literally liked to do one take and then go and have lunch with his wife. Which is basically what happened! So you’d show up, and unless the icrophonelanded on you or the camera bumped onto you or he messed up, which he never did, that was it. It was one take, and then you’re on to the next. So that was interesting." Michael Caine worked with ''Jack the Ripper'' director David Wickes on another television film: the four-hour, two-part ''Jekyll & Hyde'' (1990), based on the book by Robert Louis Stevenson. The story of Jekyll and Hyde is a plot-point in Wickes' ''Jack the Ripper'' series.

Using historical characters involved in the genuine 1888 hunt for the killer, ''Jack the Ripper'' was written by Derek Marlowe and David Wickes and directed by Wickes. The series drew heavily on the same discredited Masonic/Royal Family conspiracy theory as the 1978 film ''Murder By Decree''; it is also the account presented in the 2001 film ''From Hell''. This theory was first put forward in the 1960s by Thomas E. A. Stowell who published his claims in a November 1970 issue of ''The Criminologist''. The theory was later turned into the bestselling '' Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution'' (1976) by Stephen Knight. The 1988 series dispenses with the fictional Sherlock Holmes who uncovered the conspiracy in ''Murder By Decree'' and instead concentrates on the real-life Whitechapel detective Frederick Abberline, as assisted by Sergeant George Godley.''Jack the Ripper'' reviewed on Eofftv.com
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The series is constructed as a Whodunit in which viewers are led to suspect, at various points, that Prince Albert Victor, Richard Mansfield, George Lusk, Henry Llewellyn or Theodore Dyke Acland could be Jack the Ripper. Before ''Jack the Ripper'' was broadcast, director/co-writer David Wickes claimed that he had been allowed unprecedented access to the Scotland Yard files on the Ripper case and stated that his production would be revealing the 'true' identity of Jack the Ripper for the first time. After pressure from Ripperologist Melvin Harris and others, Wickes was forced to withdraw this claim. Nevertheless, the series begins with a disclaimer on behalf of the production staff, stating, ''"Our story is based on extensive research, including a review of the official files by special permission of the Home Office and interviews with leading criminologists and Scotland Yard officials."'' The series' "revelation" that Sir William Gull was Jack the Ripper was not new: Stephen Knight's 1976 book alleged that Gull was the Ripper, and prior to that, the theory had been cited in the 1973 BBC
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