TV Pick of the Week: The Long Shadow - review by Yvette Huddleston
The story of the serial killer Peter Sutcliffe who murdered 13 women in the North of England between 1975 and 1980, has been covered in a number of documentaries over the years – and, with a few notable exceptions, most have inevitably focussed on Sutcliffe and his heinous crimes.
This new seven-part drama from ITV, written by George Kay in consultation with the victims’ families who gave their blessing to the project, puts the focus firmly on the women. Frequently reduced to names and photographs, they are here portrayed as people with families, friends, concerns and challenges, living through a difficult time. The mid to late 1970s was a period of austerity and high unemployment and the pre-credits sequence sets this context with archive footage showing dole queues and families struggling to make ends meet.
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Hide AdIn the opening episode we see young single mother Wilma McCann (Gemma Laurie) tenderly saying goodnight to her children before going out for the evening. She never returns and there is a heart-breaking scene in which her children are told by investigating officer DCS Dennis Hoban (Toby Jones) that their mother is not coming back because she has ‘gone to heaven’.
In a parallel storyline we are introduced to housewife and mother Emily Jackson (Katherine Kelly) and her husband Sydney (Daniel Mays) who runs a roofing business that is running into debt. Their financial difficulties lead to Emily taking the decision to turn to prostitution in order to raise money to provide for the family, thereby putting her in a terribly vulnerable position.
The narrative interweaves the stories of the murdered women and their families, as well as women who survived attacks by Sutcliffe, with the efforts of the police to track down the perpetrator in a five-year manhunt. Alongside DCS Toban is Jim Hobson (Lee Ingleby) and George Oldfield (David Morrissey), both of whom later led the police investigation.
The script also addresses the way in which misogyny severely hampered that investigation – women who were prostitutes were considered less worthy of concern and those who survived attacks and gave detailed descriptions of their attacker were not listened to. Crucially this led to time being wasted on a hoaxer, and more women’s lives being lost as a result.
It is a fine line to tread, but this is a sensitive, considered drama that is mindful of Sutcliffe’s dark legacy and the long shadow it continues to cast.