Whitechapel III - Start Date

The third series of ITV's excellent Whitechapel begins next Monday at 9pm. There are six episodes comprising three two-part investigations which are inspired by three real-life crimes/criminals: The Ratcliffe Highway Murders, The Whitehall Mystery and The Zodiac Killer.

As far as I know, the Ratcliffe Highway Murders, unlike Jack the Ripper, haven't featured in much crime fiction. There is of course the non-fiction account, The Maul and The Pear Tree by P D James and T A Critchley which was reissued in 2010 and there will be Lloyd Shepherd's debut novel, The English Murder which is to be published 1 March.

Blurb: London, 1811. The twisting streets of riverside Wapping hold many an untold sin. Bounded by the Ratcliffe Highway to the north and the modern wonders of the Dock to the south, shameful secrets are largely hidden by the noise and glory of Trade. But two families have fallen victim to foul murder, and a terrified populace calls for justice. John Harriott, magistrate of the new Thames River Police Office, must deliver revenge up to them and his only hope of doing so is Charles Horton, Harriot's senior officer. Harriott only recently came up with a word to describe what it is that Horton does. It is detection.

Plymouth, 1564. Young Billy Ablass arrives from Oxford armed only with a Letter of Introduction to Captain John Hawkyns, and the burning desire of all young men; the getting and keeping of money. For Hawkyns is about to set sail in a ship owned by Queen Elizabeth herself, and Billy sees the promise of a better life with a crew intent on gain and glory. The kidnap and sale of hundreds of human beings is not the only cursed event to occur on England's first officially-sanctioned slaving voyage. On a sun-blasted islet in the Florida Cays, Billy too is to be enslaved for the rest of his accursed days.

Based on the real-life story of the gruesome Ratcliffe Highway murders, The English Monster takes us on a voyage across centuries, through the Age of Discovery, and throws us up, part of the human jetsam, onto the streets of Regency Wapping, policed only by Officer Horton.

Whitechapel III - Imminent

My tv guide is featuring Whitechapel III in its next edition which means it should start sometime in the w/c 28 January. Here's the teaser trailer released on Christmas Day:

Whitechapel 3 - set for 2012

The three leads from Whitechapel I and II are set to return in 2012 in another outing. From the ITV website:

Following the massive success of the first two runs, Whitechapel will return in 2012 with a new six-part series.

The intrepid team tracked down a blood-thirsty Jack the Ripper copycat in series one and faced off against the gangster brutality of a new generation of Krays in series two. But now they are now faced with a whole new set of challenges…

The new series will find DI Chandler (Rupert Penry-Jones), DS Miles (Phil Davis) and Edward Buchan (Steve Pemberton) spreading their investigations beyond the boundaries of Whitechapel, as they peel back the layers of some of the East End’s most gruesome history.

The East End will once again provide fertile ground for murder, body-snatching, poisoning and grisly discoveries, as the team's present day investigations echo three hundred years of crimes committed in the city's darkest recesses.

The Kray (Writing) Dynasty

I'm enjoying watching the current series of Whitechapel, which brings to the audience's attention the horrific crimes carried out by the Kray brothers. The Kray name is well known in fiction too with Roberta Kray (widow of Reggie) and Kate Kray (widow of Ronnie) both writing crime fiction. Kate Kray has recently switched from true-crime to fiction with The Betrayed, published by MaxCrime in May 2010. Roberta Kray's latest novel is The Villain's Daughter, published in June by Sphere:

Rosie was a beautiful, young actress when she fell in love with Johnny Mullins, the notorious London gangster. But their married life was far from what she had hoped it would be and was marred by drug abuse and violence. After Johnny was arrested and sentenced to 18 years, it became clear that their relationship was doomed to fail. Now, years later, and for the first time in a long time, life is finally looking up for Rosie Mullins. She has confronted her jealous husband and told him that she wants out, her acting career has taken off, and she has fallen into a new relationship with a top TV executive. All too quickly, however, she finds that Johnny's influence extends far beyond the prison walls that contain him. To make matters worse, his intensely loyal twin brother, "Mad Dog" Eddie, is proving to be every bit as dangerous as her husband. Betrayed by those who had sworn to protect her and cornered by her past, Rosie has to fight with every breath to protect herself and her beloved daughter, Ruby. She finds herself forced to play a very, very dangerous game; setting her old family against her new one.

Sean O'Donnell, small-time villain and family man, walked out of his home nineteen years ago and hasn't been heard of since. Now his daughter, Iris, has returned to the East End in the hope of finding him again. But she's not the only one on his trail. The psychotic Street brothers are right on her heels ? and they've got good reason to want her father dead. With the help of the mysterious Guy Wilder, Iris slowly begins to unearth the horrors of the past. It isn't long before she comes to realise that some secrets are best left buried...

Whitechapel II

The second series of Whitechapel, starring Rupert Penry-Jones, will this time focus on descendants of the Kray twins. I don't know when it'll be shown but it looks to be in ITV's Autumn/Winter schedule.


From ITV's press release:

Rupert Penry-Jones, Phil Davis, and Steve Pemberton will appear in a second series of the critically acclaimed serial drama Whitechapel.

Whitechapel II once again draws on a set of iconic cult crimes born out of the area. After Jack the Ripper comes the gangster brutality of the Krays, and in Whitechapel II the paranoia of this era and the faded glamour of the former East End overlords will characterise the drama.

Peter Serafinowicz (The Peter Serafinowicz Show) will play DCI Cazenove and Craig Parkinson, (Lark-Rise to Candleford) will play twins, Jimmy and Johnny Kray.

Returning to write the second series are Ben Court and Caroline Ip and Sally Woodward Gentle will executive produce the series.

Woodward Gentle said: "Whitechapel II will be as sharp, intense and as visually distinctive as the first series with the gangster culture of the Krays never far away. Once again the streets of Whitechapel yield an extraordinary story and we are delighted, if slightly scared, to be going back there again."

Whitechapel to return

ITV has announced that a second series of Whitechapel is going ahead:

Rupert Penry-Jones, Phil Davis and Steve Pemberton will reprise their roles as Chandler, Miles and Buchan, to solve a series of copycat murders reminiscent of crimes committed by the infamous Krays.

ITV's Director of Drama Commissioning Laura Mackie, says: "Whitechapel II will be full of the history, texture and detail that gave the first series a distinctive personality.

"It will be as audacious and compelling as the first series, strengthened by further character development and very real personal jeopardy. We're delighted to be commissioning more episodes following the success of Whitechapel I."

Pre-production begins in autumn 2009.

New ITV Dramas

From the Guardian:

ITV1 will add a touch of the macabre to its schedule this autumn with a gruesome modern-day Jack the Ripper drama starring Rupert Penry Jones.

One of three three new dramas for the autumn season, Whitechapel stars Jones as Chandler, a media-savvy young detective who works with an eccentric "Ripperologist" to investigate a series of bloody copycat murders.

Phil Davies has been cast as his hard-worn partner Miles in the Carnival Films production.

This autumn will also see Sean Bean return as swashbuckling hero Sharpe, this time training up a ramshackle group of soldiers on a dangerous adventure through India.

ITV has cast Kevin Whately, Geraldine Somerville and Lesley Sharp in its third commission, The Children.

Scripted by Peak Practice writer Lucy Gannon, the tense thriller focuses on the murder of a young girl and questions complex modern family relationships.