Ripper Street Season 2: 7 Actors Who Should Guest

WHATCULTURE

September 3, 2013 

By Stu Whittaker

Whitechapel is stirring.

As you may know, the second series of Ripper Street is just around the corner. Matthew Macfadyen returns as DI Edmund Reid, paired with his stalwart DS Bennet Drake (Jerome Flynn) and the mysterious and talented coroner Captain Homer Jackson (Adam Rothenberg), who has finally hidden his sordid past as Matthew Judge…or so it seems.

The BBC Autumn Original Drama trailer gives little away but as we know, with a new series comes a myriad of new actors (encompassing both genders). David Costabile, Gale from Breaking Bad and Thomas Klebanow on The Wire, has been cast as the second Judge brother, obviously there to cause concern for Captain Jackson. Being Human’s Damien Molony enters as a new DC for H Division whilst Joseph Mawle (Game of Thrones) will play a rival to Reid and co. as K Division’s Inspector Jedidiah Shine. Others gracing the show are Leanne Best (Theatre Awards UK nomination actress of The Match Box), Leverage’s Gina Bellman, Paul Kaye (Game of Thrones, 2000 Acres of Sky), Neve McIntosh (Doctor Who) and James Wilby (Maurice).

Honourable Mention
Robson Green

Okay, I don’t particularly want to see him star in Ripper Street, a reason why he isn’t on the ten and rather as an honourable mention. Robson Green is a former co-star of Jerome Flynn from the popular series Soldier Soldier, the two also had a hit song ‘Unchained Melody’ released on the back of the show. It would be great to see the chemistry between the two revived, be it with Green as a friend to H Division or a foe. His acting credentials surround a long British TV career; three seasons of Casualty, Touching Evil, Wire in the Blood and recently Being Human and Waterloo Road.

7. Peter Capaldi

I thought I’d start with the recently cast Doctor. See I had already decided to use Peter Capaldi in this list before he was made the Doctor yet I still think he would make a guest appearance if it was offered and I think an actor of his immense ability and experience of over thirty years could be influential on Ripper Street.

Capaldi has been phenomenal in his performances, especially as Malcolm Tucker in The Thick of It and its spin-off film In the Loop. Capaldi has won many awards for his performance; 2010 BAFTA for Best Comedy Performance and two British Comedy Awards for Best Television Actor in 2010 and 2012.



5. Pauline Quirke

For me I found it difficult to cast possible women for Ripper Street, this is due to the content and era the story is set in, most female characters are either prostitutes, love interests or victims. Pauline Quirke would suit the show though, either as an antagonist, by this I don’t even mean a villain but rather as an abrasive character who H Division come across, a reluctant witness or working-class mother who knows something she will not unveil, per se.

I really think she would fit into the 1890′s era of Ripper Street, she has defined herself as a comedic actress yet has not shied away from roles that require her to portray a brash, dramatic side of her talents, which she does perfectly. In Broadchurch she is threatening simply in her demeanour, it is about time that H Division come across a lady of similar ilk.

1. Andrew Scott

Probably the best portrayal of a villain since Heath Ledger’s turn as the Joker in The Dark Knight, Andrew Scott created a vivid, unpredictable, charismatic, nightmare vision of Sherlock’s nemesis, Moriarty. Andrew Scott won the 2012 British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actor for this role, he is the perfect villain, heinous and yet, in a quaint way, appealing and likeable.

Scott is keen not to become typecast, though, having starred in The Fuse, a gritty BBC four-parter, playing a melancholic detective opposite Christopher Eccleston, a pitch perfect performance as Paul McCartney in ‘Lennon Naked’, an adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s The Scapegoat, in which he plays a “terribly, terribly posh person with a side parting” and this year he will appear in ‘The Stag’, an Irish comedy drama about a stag weekend, with himself playing the best-man.

Andrew Scott is a veteran of all of acting’s schools, with numerous credits across stage and screen. He is the ideal candidate for a major villain for our heroes at H Division to face, a big bad to span most of a series offering a Moriarty for Ripper Street, hopefully not the same character but conveying the same bone-chilling essence.

If there is anyone I’ve missed or someone who you would prefer, let me know!


Read about all the rest at http://whatculture.com/tv/ripper-street-season-2-7-actors-who-should-guest-star.php/5#imWeiv1KuufCHo27.99 

Five Minutes With… ‘Ripper Street & ‘Game of Thrones’ Actor Jerome Flynn (IFTN)

You may remember him from his 90s heyday, when he was riding high on the charts with number one hits such as ‘Unchained Melody’, with his ‘Soldier Soldier’ co-star Robson Green.

Long before he was ‘Up on the Roof’ with Green however, Jerome Flynn was a serious actor who starred in the award-winning TV series ‘Soldier Soldier’ for four years. After nearly a 15-year break from prime time television, and a six-year break from acting entirely, 2011 saw Flynn make a sensational TV comeback in HBO epic ‘Game of Thrones’, in which he plays cunning sellsword Bronn. Back on screens again this month, this time as rough-around-the-edges East London detective, Bennet Drake, Flynn talks to IFTN about falling back in love with acting, why Irish crews feel like family to him, and how the last 10 years has affected his character choices.

Jerome, how familiar were you with the Jack the Ripper tale before you signed up for ‘Ripper Street’?
I didn’t know much except they never caught him.

What made you sign up for the part then? 
It’s the world in which [Richard Warlow] paints, it’s a very rich and textured world of London at that time, and as an actor, it’s characters that, it’s not just a kind of episodic to have a crime and solve it, yes that kind of tends to happen, but the characters of these, that’s the strong element that runs through.

The series is centered around the lives of three East London police, Matthew Macfadyen’s character Inspector Reid, who we are told wants nothing more than to catch the Ripper; Adam Rothenberg’s character Captain Jackson, who mysteriously comes over from America; and your character, Detective Drake…

That creates a nice dynamic with my character, Drake, because I think Jackson, what he represents, and that he is very much out of his suit and free and does what he wants, whereas Drake’s very buttoned up. He has a wounded past and he’s trying to make himself a better man and be a gentleman but he can’t button it up. So he’s jealous of Jackson, and also he’s jealous of the fact that he takes Reid’s attention, because Reid obviously has a thing going with him and enjoys his company and bounces off him, whereas it’s harder for Reid to bounce off him, apart from physically, in terms of intellectually, I don’t do it for him. I’m trying to convince him, but maybe a couple of series down the line, so that’s a nice dynamic.


READ MORE: http://www.iftn.ie/news/?act1=record&only=1&aid=73&rid=4285667&tpl=archnews&force=1