Jack the Ripper (miniseries)

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Jack the Ripper
Genre
Directed byDavid Wickes
Starring
Music byJohn Cameron
Country of origin
  • United Kingdom
  • United States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes2
Production
Executive producers
ProducerDavid Wickes
Production locations
  • Iver, United Kingdom (studio)
  • Belper, United Kingdom
CinematographyAlan Hume
EditorKeith Palmer
Running time93–96 minutes
Production companies
Original release
NetworkITV
Release11 October (1988-10-11) –
18 October 1988 (1988-10-18)

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.[1][2][3]

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

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

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

Production

Jack the Ripper presents a fictionalised portrayal of Frederick Abberline, with details of his personal life (including

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 [microphone] landed 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."[4] 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

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.[5] 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.[6]

The series is constructed as a

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 TV series Jack the Ripper (two episodes of which were directed by David Wickes). Furthermore, the Ripper character in the film Murder by Decree, assigned the fictitious name "Sir Thomas Spivey," was based on Sir William Gull.[7]

Marlowe and Wickes retained The Final Solution's contention that William Gull was Jack the Ripper, but dispensed with most of the rest of the theory: the involvement of Prince Albert Victor is dismissed as a

Freemasons; and the explanation given for the murders is dementia, acquired by Gull from a stroke. The original script adhered more closely to The Final Solution but was changed during the course of production: interviewed in 2017, Jane Seymour stated "when we first got the script, they kind of implicated the Masons as being involved, and by the time we finished the movie, there was pretty much no mention of the Masons."[4]

The series ends with Gull's son-in-law, Dr. Theodore Dyke Acland, theorising that Gull was using himself as a case-study of

Sir Charles Warren to avoid a scandal, as Gull was Queen Victoria
's physician. The series' denouement thus differs to Stephen Knight's claim that Warren was aware of the Ripper's identity as the crimes were being committed.

Jack the Ripper ends with the following disclaimer:

In the strange case of Jack the Ripper, there was no trial and no signed confession.

In 1888, neither fingerprinting nor bloodtyping was in use and no conclusive forensic, documentary or eye-witness testimony was available. Thus, positive proof of the Ripper’s identity is not available.

We have come to our conclusions after careful study and painstaking deduction. Other researchers, criminologists and writers may take a different view.

We believe our conclusions to be true.

The series was originally mounted on a relatively low-budget, with interior photography shot on video-tape and location footage shot on 16-mm film (as was common practice for British television productions of the time). Filming commenced in October 1987, with

Van der Valk cast in the role of Abberline. Production was halted in December 1987 after the American television network CBS
became interested in the project, and most of the original cast and crew were paid off.

Michael Caine played Frederick Abberline

Jack the Ripper was consequently re-tooled as an

American co-production with an $11 million budget (provided jointly by Thames Television and CBS), shot entirely on film. It was decided that a more famous actor would be required to headline the series if it was to sell in the United States, so the role of Abberline was recast with the actor Michael Caine[8][9] – ironically, Foster had earlier replaced Caine in Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy, when Caine refused to play a serial killer who mutilates women.[10]
The casting of Michael Caine was considered to be a major coup, as the actor was not known for doing television work. Jack the Ripper reportedly earned Caine a fee of $1 million.

In the original version of the series, Abberline's partner George Godley was to have been played by Brian Capron.[11][12] He was replaced by Lewis Collins who was best known as Bodie in the ITV action series The Professionals. American actor Armand Assante and British actress Jane Seymour, both well known to American audiences, were added to the cast at the suggestion of CBS. Ken Bones, George Sweeney, Edward Judd and Kelly Cryer all played the parts they were cast for in the unfinished version of the series.

Jack the Ripper began filming in February 1988, with principal photography at Pinewood Studios. David Wickes was determined that as few people as possible should know who would be unmasked as the killer, and shot four dummy endings (revealing George Lusk, Inspector Spratling, Chief Superintendent Arnold and Sir Charles Warren as the Ripper) to put the cast and crew off the scent. He also mocked up a scene with Godley pulling William Gull from a coach in a case of mistaken identity, and then edited them all together to produce the result. Reportedly, only eight members of Wickes' staff knew the truth before production wrapped.[11]

The series premiered in the UK on 11 October 1988, and in the USA on 21 October 1988. (The original broadcast thus occurred within the timeframe of the centenary of the Ripper's "Canonical Five" murders, 31 August-9 November 1888.) The series enjoyed extremely high ratings on both sides of the Atlantic.[11]

Several DVD editions of Jack the Ripper include, as extra features, audio commentary by director/co-writer David Wickes and production assistant Sue Davies, and twenty minutes of footage from the original shoot starring Barry Foster and Brian Capron. The series was released on Blu-ray on 27 March 2017. This edition features two versions of the series over two discs, the first presenting the series in two parts as originally broadcast and in its original 4:3 aspect. The second disc contains the series as one film and in a 16:9 widescreen aspect. The blu-ray release contains the same extras contained in the previous DVD releases.

British nostalgia television channel Talking Pictures TV aired both episodes on Wednesday 1 and Thursday 2 April 2020, the first time the miniseries was repeated on British television for some years.

Historical accuracy

The film contains several historical inaccuracies:

Inspector Frederick Abberline's name is mis-pronounced for the entirety of the series. There is also no evidence that he was an alcoholic.

George Lusk is depicted as an anarchist but was in fact a mild-mannered, public spirited man: the patrols he organised were more like modern neighbourhood watch patrols or police organised searches.

Prince Albert Victor is referred to in the film as the Duke of Clarence, when in fact he did not assume that title until May 1890, two years after the murders.

It is stated that Mary Ann Nichols had her uterus removed, but this is untrue as she had no organs missing. Annie Chapman was the first victim to have her uterus removed.

Catherine Eddowes is portrayed as having shared a pimp with Elizabeth Stride and Mary Jane Kelly, as well as having been acquainted with Mary Ann Nichols, however, there is no definitive evidence that any of the victims knew each other. It also seems questionable that either Eddowes or Kelly would have had a pimp. Prostitution was not Eddowes main form of employment, she merely engaged in prostitution as supplemental income if needed; and Kelly had only just resumed her work as a prostitute shortly before the murders began, after her lover Joseph Barnett became unemployed (she had previously worked as a prostitute before she began cohabitating with Barnett).

Emma Prentiss claims that the illustration she has drawn is for The Strand Magazine, when in fact that publication didn't exist until 1891.

A photographer is seen photographing the corpse of Annie Chapman at the murder scene. In reality, photographing a murder scene was not common practice at the time and the body was not photographed until being transferred to the mortuary.

According to their badges, the constables in the film were assigned to 'J' division, whereas Whitechapel was actually 'H' division.

George Godley exclaims that the murderer has cut off the ears of Catharine Eddowes. In reality, her ears were left intact, with only the lobe of one ear being cut through.

The actor Richard Mansfield is portrayed as being American. Although he had his greatest success in America, Mansfield was an Englishman born in Berlin to a Russian mother and an English father.

Bloodhounds are visible at the scene of Mary Jane Kelly's murder in Miller's Court. While the use of bloodhounds was indeed considered and trialed, they were not actually employed during the investigation.

When the body of Mary Jane Kelly is discovered, the view of the corpse through the window is incorrect. It is seen as being face on, whereas the body was actually side-on, with the head to the right.

When Abberline shows Gull a photograph of the Mary Jane Kelly crime scene, the actual photo of her body is shown.

Susan George, playing prostitute Catharine Eddowes, is clad in a fashionable and expensive 'Bustle' dress. This garment would have been far beyond the means of women like Eddowes.

Frederick Abberline is depicted as having been transferred to Whitechapel as a form of punishment for his alcoholism. In fact, Abberline was reassigned to field work from Scotland Yard due to his intimate knowledge of the area, having previously worked as the local Inspector for Whitechapel for fourteen years from 1873 to 1887.

Awards and nominations

Year Award Category Nominee(s) Result Ref.
1989
 American Cinema Editors Awards Best Edited Episode from a Television Mini-Series Keith Palmer (for "Part II") Nominated [13]
Golden Globe Awards Best Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television Nominated [14]
Best Actor in a Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television Michael Caine Won[a]
Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television Armand Assante Nominated
Primetime Emmy Awards Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Special Nominated [15]
Outstanding Individual Achievement in Hairstyling for a Miniseries or a Special Betty Glasow, Stevie Hall, and
Elaine Bowerbank (for "Part I") 		Won

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Tied with Stacy Keach for Hemingway.

References

  1. ^ marcus, laurence. "JACK THE RIPPER | A TELEVISION HEAVEN REVIEW". www.televisionheaven.co.uk. Archived from the original on 5 September 2015. Retrieved 21 September 2018.
  2. ^ "Saucy Jack: A Look Back at Michael Caine's Jack the Ripper Miniseries". That's Not Current. 13 September 2016. Archived from the original on 30 March 2019. Retrieved 21 September 2018.
  3. ^ "TVT 1988/42 – 15–21 October 1988 (TVS and C4) JACK THE RIPPER (ITV) with cover photo of Michael Caine and Jane Seymour". www.radiotimesbacknumbers.com. Archived from the original on 29 March 2019. Retrieved 21 September 2018.
  4. ^ a b Harris, Will (17 April 2017). "Jane Seymour on how Dr. Quinn was not supposed to last and her "whole new career" in comedy". The A.V. Club.
  5. ^ Stowell, T. E. A. (November 1970) "Jack the Ripper – A Solution?". The Criminologist vol.5 pp.40–51
  6. ^ a b Jack the Ripper reviewed on Eofftv.com
  7. ISBN 9780857687760
    .
  8. ^ "Michael Caine in the film Jack the ripper playing the part of Inspector fred abberline". Alamy. 1 September 1998. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
  9. Washington Post
    . Retrieved 5 September 2018.
  10. ^ Mcgue, Kevin (24 April 2010). "Jack the Ripper film review". A Life at the Movies.
  11. ^ a b c Action TV Online
  12. ^ Series background on Eofftv.com Archived 11 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  13. ^ "Nominees/Winners". IMDb. Retrieved 3 April 2019.
  14. ^ "Jack the Ripper". Golden Globe Awards. Retrieved 30 October 2023.
  15. ^ "Jack the Ripper". Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 30 October 2023.

External links

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