Regardless of the off-screen traumas, all the principal cast are present and correct for the commencement of the late Victorian crime drama’s third season, which takes place in and around the streets of down-at-heel Whitechapel.
Four years have passed since the climatic events which closed the second run and many of the characters find themselves in changed circumstances. Not so for Detective Inspector Edmund Reid (Matthew MacFadyen) though, who remains in charge at Leman Street. Focussing on his criminal archive, he has become even more emotionally isolated than before, not least due to the death of his estranged wife.
In the gap, a clash between Reid and his wayward American surgeon Capt. Homer Jackson (Adam Rothenberg) has seen the pair discontinue their unconventional working relationship. The latter appears to have returned to a life of back street medicine, drink and vice, a reaction to breakdown of his marriage.
Despite their distance, a train crash provides the impetus to draw them together as it brings carnage to the streets. The accident also delivers back the vital component of their crime fighting team: Bennett Drake (Jerome Flynn).
The former sergeant, now Inspector, ran away from his problems to Manchester, but has returned at the request of Chief Inspector Abberline, who seeks to retire from Scotland Yard, installing Reid as his successor while Drake assumes control of Whitechapel.
Despite their differences and after the horror of the accident, which sees Drake landed with responsibility for an orphan, the desire for justice leads the team to a disgruntled railway worker who is then owner of an impressive model railway. However, he is but a cog in the plans of the devious solicitor Ronald Capshaw.
The connection is brought closer to home as Capshaw works for Obsidian Estates, the company Long Susan (Myanna Buring) assumed control of and is now using as an outwardly legitimate business to further her costly philanthropic efforts. These laudable plans involve the training of nurses and doctors by Dr Amelia Frayn (Sherlock‘s Louise ‘Molly’ Brealy) to give local women a future.
With the dramatic railway heist causing unplanned death and destruction, we could not help but be amused that the unfortunate criminal had failed to take into account engineering works on the line, something most modern visitors fall foul of on any given Sunday!
This accident looks to have far reaching implications too, from the death of newspaper man Fred Best’s lover to the fact that it has set Long Susan on a path of villainy, albeit from a first step of good intentions.
Our hopes are high for Ripper Street and we are thrilled that it is back.
Aired at 9pm on Friday 31 July 2015 on BBC One.
> Order Season 3 on DVD on Amazon.
> Buy the Season 1-2 box set on Amazon.
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