Ripper Street: Season Three Starts April 29th on BBC America

TV SERIES FINALE
March 26, 2015

As you may recall, BBC cancelled Ripper Street after two seasons. The series was later revived thanks to a deal between BBC and Amazon. Late last year, the new season of eight episodes was offered exclusively in the UK on Prime Instant Video. Now, BBC America has announced the premiere of season three in the States for Wednesday, April 29th.

Here are the details:

BBC AMERICA’S “RIPPER STREET” RETURNS FOR SEASON THREE ON APRIL 29, 10:00PM ET

The robbery of a goods train leads to a cataclysmic locomotive disaster on Leman Street, reuniting the men and their resentments to seek its cause

New York – March 26, 2015 – BBC AMERICA’s critically-acclaimed and BAFTA nominated original British drama Ripper Street returns in April. Picking up in 1894, four years after the culmination of season two, the new season reveals a vivid and sensual descent into the lives of the men and women who must live on the violent streets of Whitechapel in late Victorian London. Ripper Street premieres Wednesday, April 29, 10:00pm ET on BBC AMERICA.



Matthew Macfadyen returns as Detective Inspector Reid, Jerome Flynn as the newly promoted Detective Inspector Bennet Drake, and Adam Rothenberg as Captain Homer Jackson. MyAnna Buring also returns as Long Susan in the eight-part season.

Four years have passed since Reid bayed for Drake to end the life of Jedediah Shine. Four years that have seen the crime-fighting axis of Reid, Drake and Jackson split and isolated from one another. Drake has left London for Manchester to become the policeman – and man – he felt he could no longer be in Whitechapel. He is an Inspector himself now. Jackson has reverted to the man Reid plucked out of the Tenter Street brothel, a two-penny, sawbones, clap-doctor. And Reid has succumbed to his own shame and isolation, policing Whitechapel with a level of forensic detail and dedication that leads Chief Inspector Fred Abberline to fear for his old friend’s mental well-being.

Meanwhile, Long Susan has made good on her threats to both Captain Jackson and the dying Silas Dugan – she has separated from her husband, taken command of Duggan’s criminal empire and turned it into a legitimate property empire of huge philanthropic ambition. But such aspirations are costly, as her loyal but scheming solicitor Ronald Capshaw knows only too well.

All these resentments, fears and ambitions are soon forgotten, however, when two trains collide on the newly constructed bridge above Leman Street. It is a catastrophe which falls into Reid’s world and demands explanation. His pursuit reunites him with Drake and Jackson and sets him on his own collision course with his past and with the secret crimes of Long Susan and Ronald Capshaw.


READ MORE HERE: http://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/ripper-street-season-three-starts-april-29th-on-bbc-america-36010/

Matthew Macfadyen: Mac the knife

EXPRESS
By: Simon Button
Published: Sun, November 10, 2

Ripper Street is definitely not suitable for children. All those gory Victorian murders are the stuff of nightmares, so it’s just as well for actor Matthew Macfadyen that eight-year-old Maggie and seven-year-old Ralph are distinctly unimpressed by their father’s career. Have they seen any of his stuff? “Er, now and again,” says the 6ft 3in actor, “but they’re not really interested. I wish they were sometimes, but they’re not. The most boring thing they could watch is Daddy. They’d rather see Despicable Me 2.”

Macfadyen, married for nine years to his Spooks co-star Keeley Hawes, happily pulled on the three-piece suit and bowler hat of Detective Inspector Edmund Reid for the return of BBC1’s Monday night murder thriller. But he has no illusions that he could do the job for real.“Every role you play, you sort of imaginatively jump into it, so you think, ‘Yeah, I could be a soldier,’ or whatever. You’ve got to believe in it and take it seriously, at least a little bit. But that’s the joy of this job. You can dip a toe into another world – and often you meet the people who do that job for a living, so you get some amazing insights – and then you can dip out again, safely and happily. But be a real policeman? Of course I couldn’t. I’d be hopeless. I’m just not clever enough.”

Instead, the Norfolk-born son of an actress and an oil executive has been honing his stagecraft since he enrolled at RADA at 17. Now 38, he has compiled an impressive CV that includes a number of Shakespeare roles and Noel Coward’s Private Lives on stage – when he co-starred with Kim Cattrall – plus Pride & Prejudice and Anna Karenina on film, and everything from Spooks to Pillars of the Earth via Ashes to Ashes and Little Dorrit on telly. It’s the success of Ripper Street that has really raised his profile, however. “I don’t get stopped in the street very often but it does happen a little more now,” he says. “Since this show started, people stop me and say they love it and I’m so glad they do. It’s a lovely feeling to get good feedback.”



Not everyone, it has to be said, has been able to stomach all that gore. “But you shouldn’t sugar-coat it,” argues Macfadyen.  “There are boundaries of taste, I suppose, but a bit of blood and guts is all right.”Ripper Street series two finds Edmund Reid in “a pretty dark place,” says the actor. Sergeant Bennet Drake (Jerome Flynn) is still by his side, “but Reid is no longer living at home, he’s living in his office and he’s pretty lonely. Jerome’s character is married and he’s happy. He’s enjoying domestic bliss with his new wife, which is a bit of a turnaround from the first series. But Reid’s wife isn’t around any more and we don’t know why – well, not yet anyway. So he throws himself into his work.”

READ MORE HERE: http://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/tv-radio/441869/Mac-the-knife


GIFS from Naive Crazy Miss Black Tumblr

The Ripper Street Drinking Game - PLUS RIPPER STREET BINGO!!!

FROM TUMBLER: http://angelic37.tumblr.com/post/65335620292/ripperstreet-drinkinggame-bingo

"I  HAD TO DREAM AWAKE"

also... one of my favorites

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5e2iluWDEUY

MATTHEW MACFADYEN; Ripper Street Trailer (new)

Rupert Penry-Jones: Blood, sweat and fears

THE AGE

Guy Davis

October , 2013

Since its premiere season, which saw a modern-day madman recreating the gruesome murders of Jack the Ripper in 21st century London, the UK crime drama Whitechapel has made the district of the title the epicentre for some truly nasty crimes.

It begs the question: is Whitechapel actually a nice place to live? Does anyone even really want to go there?
“It is nice, actually,” Whitechapel star Rupert Penry-Jones chuckled.

“It’s become a very trendy part of London. It wasn’t always but now it’s where the young, cool people tend to go. I love it there – it’s got real atmosphere.”

Well, if the fourth season of Whitechapel is any indication, the area not only attracts the young and the cool but the crazy and the bloodthirsty.

The six episodes making up the season are split into three two-episode investigations undertaken by Penry-Jones’ DI Joseph Chandler, Phil Davis’ DS Ray Miles and their team, including unofficial consultant Edward Buchan (Steve Pemberton), a true-crime enthusiast.

And the cases they’re trying to crack? A witch hunt where the victims are crushed under boulders and burned alive at the stake, for one.

Then there’s mysterious deaths in the sewers that may be the result of feral pigs.

“And there’s one where someone is skinning people,” Penry-Jones said dryly. “This is possibly the most grisly season yet.”

But the actor, whose other notable small-screen roles include Spooks and Silk, rather likes it that way.

“To be honest, the scarier and more gruesome the better, as far I am concerned,” he said.




http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-guide/blood-sweat-and-fears-20131006-2v1wc.html#ixzz2hEn157qG

Ripper Street: All set for a ripping yarn - The detectives caught up in the Whitechapel murders proved an irresistible backdrop for Matthew Macfadyen.

THE AGE

Michael Idato
Senior Writer

18 August, 2013

In the year 1889, on the mean streets of London's Whitechapel district, about 70,000 people are crammed into little more than a square mile under the watchful eye of Detective Inspector Edmund Reid, played by Matthew Macfadyen.

This is Jack the Ripper territory, but Jack himself - the notorious serial killer who haunted the East End of London and became famous for a series of fiendish murders - has faded into memory. In his wake sits a bustling culture of decadence and extravagance.

Jack's spectre, nonetheless, looms large over the district, and the television series Ripper Street. ''They never found him, so it became a story that could go on forever,'' Macfadyen says. ''Was he a doctor? An aristocrat? We may never know.

''And they were revolting crimes. The east end was a rough and scary place at the time, and the story was whipped up by the tabloids; it captured people's imaginations at the time.''

Ripper Street is not a Jack the Ripper story per se. But that famous crime looms large over Reid and the officers of Whitechapel H Division - Detective Sergeant Bennet Drake (Jerome Flynn) and Captain Homer Jackson (Adam Rothenberg) - as they deal with other crimes in the district.

In a Victorian London during the industrial age, Ripper Street becomes something more sophisticated: a crime drama with forensic touches, set in a world where forensics was in its infancy.

''That's what I found so fascinating,'' Macfadyen says, easing back in a large leather armchair in a small office in London. ''I saw my character as a very modern man, a very forward-thinking man. I think he's fascinated by new ideas and new ways of looking at things.

''In a sense, in that world, they were bumbling around. Fingerprints were some time away. But the whole Victorian era was right on the verge of enormous discoveries in science and engineering.'' The series is a co-production between the BBC and its American arm, BBC America. 

Macfadyen says he was drawn to the project by the pedigree of the talent working on it: writers Richard Warlow, Julie Rutterford, Declan Croghan and Toby Finlay and directors Andy Wilson, Colm McCarthy and Tom Shankland. ''Everything seemed to align with this,'' he tells The Sun-Herald. 

''I'd had a funny year the year before and I did [the film] Anna Karenina at the end of that year, and I was longing for a bit of continuity. 

 Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/ripper-street-all-set-for-a-ripping-yarn-20130817-2s348.html#ixzz2cErRYDHo

GAME of Thrones star Joseph Mawle is the latest big name to sign up for Ripper Street.

THE SUN

Wednesday, 31 July, 2013

The new series of the hit BBC drama reunites 19th Century copper Reid (Matthew Macfadyen), with his crime fighting pals Drake (Jerome Flynn) and Jackson (Adam Rothenberg).

They face trouble from within the force from corrupt rival inspector Jedidiah Shine played by Mawle.

Macfadyen said: “It’s fantastic to be reunited with much of the wonderful cast and crew. Also to be reunited with my bowler hat – I’d missed it.

“The creator (Richard Warlow) has given us wonderful, strange and unsettling episodes – teeming with the fierce and fragile life of Victorian Whitechapel.”

The Wire’s David Costabile will play Jackson’s older brother, Daniel, who arrives in the district for the two-part finale.

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/5042699/Game-of-Thrones-actor-Joseph-Mawle-joins-cast-of-hit-BBC-cop-drama-Ripper-Street.html#ixzz2aczzHrQ9

Matthew Macfadyen - Ripper Street Season Two premieres December 1 on BBC America

Ripper Street - Second Season Premieres Sunday, December 1, 10:00pm ET/PT

BBC AMERICA's Victorian London crime series returns with stars Matthew Macfadyen, Jerome Flynn, Adam Rothenberg and Myanna Buring as Inspector Reid, Sergeant Drake, Captain Jackson and madam Long Susan. The new season moves the action forward to 1890. As the century enters its final decade, the streets teeter on the brink of moral collapse, and nowhere is the declining British Empire's problems felt more keenly than in its dark heart: the East End of London. Ripper Street is produced for BBC ONE by Tiger Aspect Productions, Lookout Point and BBC AMERICA

Lizzie MM

READ MORE HERE: http://m.bwwtvworld.com/article/BBC-America-Announces-2013-14-Season-Premiere-Dates-for-ATLANTIS-ORPHAN-BLACK-RIPPER-STREET-More-20130725_page2

Jerome Flynn: In like Flynn on Ripper Street and Thrones

Darren Cartwright, 

National Entertainment Writer, AAP

July 22, 2013, 12:43 pm

YAHOO NEW ZEALAND

One day Jerome Flynn is slicing his way around the set of Game Of Thrones and the next he is working out who is slicing up the women in Ripper Street.

That's because the English actor is in the enviable position of working simultaneously on two successful prime-time series.

The set of HBO's medieval fantasy Game Of Thrones and Network Ten's latest acquisition, Ripper Street, are both filmed in Ireland.

It allows Flynn to make the dash from one set to the other to maintain his key roles in both shows.

"It's turned out really nicely because Game Of Thrones is just an hour and half up the road and I've got some Irish heritage that I want to explore, so it's filling that hole as well," Flynn told AAP from Dublin.

"They are two really good jobs to be involved with and they're great characters."

Ripper Street, which launches on Ten on July 28, is set in the aftermath of Jack The Ripper in the late 1800s when women are still being murdered.

In the series Flynn plays Detective Sergeant Bennet Drake while on Game Of Thrones, which has just started production, he has the recurring role of mercenary Bronn.

"We're two months into the second season Of Ripper Street and Game Of Thrones has started filming but because I don't have a huge part in Thrones, I can do both," he says.

"I have about 12 to 15 days of work on Thrones this season."

The irony of Flynn's success is that he basically gave away acting for almost a decade.

He said he went on a "spiritual path" and took a step back from his chosen career because he had seen how actors can become slave to the profession.

READ MORE HERE: https://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/entertainment/18095031/in-like-flynn-on-ripper-street-and-thrones/

Matthew Macfadyen: Glad to be back in hat (BELFAST TELEGRAPH)

Matthew Macfadyen has said he could't wait to get back into his bowler hat for the new series of Ripper Street.

Filming has begun on the second series of the BBC One drama, and Matthew is looking forward to being reunited with his distinctive costume.

He said: "It's fantastic to begin shooting in Dublin again for the second series of Ripper Street - and to be reunited with much of the wonderful cast and crew from last year. Also to be reunited with my bowler hat - I'd missed it.

"The show's creator Richard Warlow has given us two wonderful, strange and unsettling opening episodes, teeming with the fierce and fragile life of Victorian Whitechapel."

Matthew will be joined again by co-stars Jerome Flynn and Adam Rothenberg to play the Victorian crime fighting team.

READ MORE: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/entertainment/news/macfadyen-glad-to-be-back-in-hat-29294843.html

Matthew Macfadyen: ‘Ripper Street’ Filming Moves to North Great George's Street 23 May 2013 : By Kevin Cronin (IFTN)

Dublin’s North Great George's Street witnessed dramatic scenes of ‘Ripper Street’ season two filming this week, with one character getting thrown from a window and impaled through the leg on a railing.

By contrast, cast and crew members - including stars Matthew Macfadyen, Jerome Flynn and Adam Rothenberg - were in high spirits, and a crash mat was laid under the scene of the wounded police detective (and uninjured stuntman) left hanging upside down.

Bafta-nominated for Best Drama series earlier this month, ‘Ripper Street’ returned to Clancy Barracks at the end of April for principal photography on its second 8-part series before moving to the Natural History Museum on Merrion Row and other Dublin locations in the weeks since.

The Whitechapel-set crime thriller, set in the aftermath of the Jack the Ripper killings in 1889, will wrap filming in Dublin on 31st August and return to BBC screens in 2014.


READ MORE: http://www.iftn.ie/news/?act1=record&only=1&aid=73&rid=4286109&tpl=archnews&force=1

Matthew Macfadyen: Ripper Street Set to Return to Dublin on April 29 16:10 : By Gearóid Gilmore (IFTN)

The second series of the Irish co-production ‘Ripper Street’ will begin shooting in Dublin later this month.

The hit TV series, which is aired by the BBC, will return to filming in the Clancy Barracks in Dublin later this month and is set to continue filming until August 31st.

The first series was set in London’s East End in Whitechapel in the year 1889; six months after the infamous Jack the Ripper murders. When more women are murdered on the streets of Whitechapel, Detective Inspector Edmund Reid (played by Matthew Macfadyen), Detective Sergeant Bennett Drake (Jerome Flynn), and US Army Captain Homer Jackson (Adam Rothenberg) begin to investigate the killings. Fears that Jack the Ripper has returned begin to surface in the disadvantaged district.


READ MORE: http://www.iftn.ie/news/?act1=record&only=1&aid=73&rid=4285936&tpl=archnews&force=1

Review of Ripper Street ‘What Use Our Work?’ By Neela Debnath Arts (THE INDEPENDENT)

SPOILERS: Do not read this if you have not seen episode 8 of ‘Ripper Street’

As the curtain fell on our heroes of the East End, these past two months have offered an interesting insight into this faux, hyper-real Victoriana version of Whitechapel, complete with its cockney geezers and top hats.

This week saw the resolution of Jackson’s storyline whereby he cleared his name using forensics to rightly prove that Goodnight framed him as the Ripper. There was also a subplot involving date rape and human trafficking, with Rose getting caught up in something that required Drake to rescue her yet again. On top of that the audience learnt the whole story of the night Reid lost his daughter Matilda.

The three simultaneous stories which were interwoven into the episode created a thrilling finale. It was a race against the clock to save Rose and also the girl thought to be Matilda but who turned out to be a street urchin.

It was a fantastic red herring thrown in there in amongst all the other things that were going on. There was the hope that finally Reid might find some peace and closure instead this dark shadow will always be there in his life. The sense of guilt will hang over him, the same guilt which caused a rift in marriage and led him to stray from his wife. As a rule all detectives need to remain workaholics, driven deeper into their work by the guilt of a dark and hunting past, Reid is no different in this respect. It would just be plain wrong if we saw him strolling jauntily through the streets of the East End, whistling a tune. If police officers are to be brilliant then they must remain troubled and either be alcoholics or philanderers or both.

What Use Our Work? was a strong finale to the series and by the last scene it felt like the trio were ready for more. Hobbs was not forgotten either which was a really nice touch and really honoured the character. The scene where Artherton, the officer with the great big bushy ginger beard who usually communicates only through his eyes, belted out a tune in the pub to mark the passing of the young officer was wonderfully poignant. All in all, it worked with a usual mixture of action, intrigue and drama, along with nasty little violent or visceral moments that pepper the series.

Ripper Street is a great Sunday night cop show, it’s engaging with three really interesting leads. Yes, there are a multitude of anachronisms but it is still good fun and essentially a police procedural in the Victorian age, i.e. CSI: Whitechapel. It is also worth mentioning that it has been beautifully shot. It may not have the same sweeping sets of other production but it manages to look like the east end of London, even if it is filmed in Ireland, most notably in Kilmainham Gaol with its Panopticon building and a car park outside Dublin Castle.


READ MORE: http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/02/24/review-of-ripper-street-what-use-our-work/

Matthew Macfadyen: His biggest challenge while filming Ripper Street (BBC AMERICA)

http://www.bbcamerica.com/ripper-street/videos/whats-fascinating-about-ripper-street/

Ripper Street Review - Episode 6 (Spoilers for US)

This week's Ripper Street finally reveals a few of Detective Reid's secrets. Here's Jamie-Lee's review...

This review contains spoilers

1.6 Tournament of Shadows

Now three-quarters of the way through this beautifully bloody journey through the streets of Whitechapel in the months after the serials killings of Jack the Ripper, we are finally offered a brief insight into the background and inner workings of Ripper Street's lead character. Master of the bowler hat and sardonic quip, Detective Inspector Edmund Reid is played by Matthew Macfadyen of Spooks, Mr Darcy and husband of voice of Lara Croft fame. He even does those Marks and Spencers adverts, which is why you may find yourself wanting hot chocolate pudding oozing with cream and lashings of, ohhh, anyway... He has used his brooding skills demonstrably when hiding his feelings of pain about his daughter and somewhat awkward marriage in this gritty series and his MI5 training from Spooks has proved useful for authority, particularly when dishing out the dirty work to his right-hand men Drake and Jackson. He’s also shown that he’s not afraid of a rough and tumble himself when putting Jackson in his place, or giving one or two ruffians or embassy staff a swift backhand.

Ripper Street offers a plethora of on-going interesting characters and sub-plots to keeps viewers entertained alongside each week’s main plot, and this week’s episode is once again completely different from anything we’ve seen in the previous five. The H Division are left dealing with the dock strike of ’89 and rather unpleasant anarchists are stirring up trouble. A bomber is killed in an ‘accidental explosion’ revealing a deadly Communist plot, although as this is Whitechapel and prime time BBC One viewing, all is not what is seems. When Reid thinks everything looks a bit circumspect, he faces a backlash from Special Branch. Not heeding his warnings from above, he comes across something more unpleasant and sinister than the criminals roaming the streets, and far closer to home. In addition, we get a taste of what’s to come in the future storyline, when we discover that Jackson may not be who he say he is at all. Not so happily coerced into going undercover for Reid during the strike, he performs brilliantly, saving Drake’s life in the process. However, how far does and can his acting and betrayal go?

READ MORE: http://www.denofgeek.com/tv/ripper-street/24338/ripper-street-episode-6-review-tournament-of-shadows

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

Ripper Street: BBC gets it right again with this ripping good unsettling yarn JOHN DOYLE The Globe and Mail Published Friday, Jan. 25 2013, 5:00 PM EST Last updated Friday, Jan. 25 2013, 7:23 PM EST

The good, gruesome new Brit drama Ripper Street (Saturday, Space, 9 p.m.) is set in 1889 and yet feels both contemporary and very familiar.

For the umpteenth time in movies and TV, we’re taken back to the era of Jack the Ripper – the filthy, teeming streets of London, brothels, bodices and earnest police officers trying to use new technology and forensic evidence to solve crimes.


The sense of the contemporary was emphatic in the opening episode. The setting was the period when Jack the Ripper seemed to have stopped his killing spree, and viewers first saw a ghoulish bit of tourism unfold – people were being led around East London to see the exact spots where the Ripper’s victims were found. At the same time, there was an avid tabloid press competing for new information about the serial killer.

A body was found. It looked like the Ripper’s work, but was it? It was the task of Police Inspector Edmund Reid (Matthew Macfadyen), his Detective Sergeant Drake (Jerome Flynn from Game of Thrones) and Captain Homer Jackson (Adam Rothenberg), a former Pinkerton detective and U.S. Army surgeon, to determine what was going on.

The seediness and depravity of London during the period was on full display (in the U.K., where Ripper Street has been airing recently on the BBC, there were many complaints from viewers about some gory, blood-soaked scenes), and the series continues to be unafraid to disturb.

The second episode airs on Saturday – you can find the pilot on demand – and it becomes clear that each episode is both an excellent mystery and highlights a key aspect of the period in which it is set. The first episode dwelt much on the arrival of commercial pornography. This one deals with the role of children in the late Victorian period.

READ MORE:  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/television/ripper-street-a-ripping-good-unsettling-yarn/article7861512/

'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

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