--- title: "Ripper Street" year: 2012 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/ripper-street" fi1m_id: "ripper-street" imdb_id: "tt2183641" tmdb_id: 46930 wikidata_id: "Q2855210" fi1m_score: 74 critics_score: 79 critics_reviews: 6 published: "2026-10-07T16:07:28.488196+00:00" updated: "2026-10-07T16:07:55.891215+00:00" region: "FR" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Ripper Street (2012) Created by Richard Warlow · 1h 00m · CNC 10 · Drama, Mystery, Crime ## Identity Ripper Street - **Canonical:** https://film.one/tv/ripper-street - **Type:** Series - **Fi1m ID:** ripper-street - **IMDb ID:** tt2183641 - **TMDB ID:** 46930 - **Wikidata ID:** Q2855210 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2183641/, https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/46930, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2855210 **Fi1m score: 74** · Critics 79 from 6 reviews *In a sentence:* Six months after the Ripper and Whitechapel has learned nothing from him except how to sell him > Richard Warlow’s police drama arrives with the Ripper’s blood still on the cobbles and does something braver than chase him. The cases are uneven and the talk is ornate, but the three men at the centre of it are worth your evening. ## Synopsis Whitechapel, 1889. Six months have passed since the last of the Ripper murders, nobody has been caught, and the district has not stopped looking over its shoulder. Detective Inspector Edmund Reid (Matthew Macfadyen) runs H Division out of Leman Street station and wants the place policed by evidence rather than panic. At his side is Sergeant Bennet Drake (Jerome Flynn), a former soldier who does Reid’s fighting for him, and Homer Jackson (Adam Rothenberg), an American surgeon of uncertain history who performs the post-mortems and lodges at the brothel kept by Long Susan Hart (MyAnna Buring). When a woman is found dead in a Whitechapel alley with her body cut about, the newspapers decide the Ripper is back. Reid does not believe it, and has to prove otherwise before the street decides for him. ## Review Whitechapel in 1889 is a place that would rather keep hunting a ghost than face what is actually in front of it, and Richard Warlow’s series makes its best decision before the first episode is out. The Ripper is not coming back. Detective Inspector Edmund Reid of H Division is going to have to police a slum that misses him, a press that misses him more, and a public that has got used to the idea of a monster and does not want an ordinary explanation. Matthew Macfadyen plays Reid as a careful, over-read man who believes in evidence in a district that runs on rumour, and the series is at its best when that belief is tested rather than flattered. He has two men. Bennet Drake (Jerome Flynn) is his sergeant, a soldier who learned to kill for the Queen and is quietly ashamed of how good he is at it. Homer Jackson (Adam Rothenberg) is an American surgeon with a past he does not discuss, who does Reid’s post-mortems and lodges at the house kept by Long Susan Hart (MyAnna Buring), where Rose Erskine (Charlene McKenna) works. Flynn is the surprise. We were more moved than we expected by Drake standing in Susan’s parlour trying to court Rose with manners he has plainly learned from a book, a man who can break a jaw with one hand and does not know what to do with a teacup in the other. Flynn plays it without once asking for pity, and the series knows to leave him alone while he does. The look is brown, wet and close. Leman Street station is wood, soot and iron, the streets outside are mud and gaslight, and the production design never lets a surface stay clean long enough for us to admire it. Drake’s fights are shot tight and cut hard, so we feel the weight of a punch before we see where it landed. Jackson’s dissecting table is where the series does its quietest work: a body, a lamp, and a man explaining what the wounds mean to a policeman who would rather not know. It is Victorian forensics done as theatre, and it holds. The talk is another matter. Everyone in Whitechapel speaks as though dictating a pamphlet, and the writing team, Warlow among them, have decided that a sentence is not finished until it has a subordinate clause and a flourish. It is a style, and it is sometimes a good one, but it trips the actors in the smaller parts and gives the villains a habit of explaining themselves at length. Rothenberg handles it best; he turns the ornament into a drawl and makes it sound like contempt. Macfadyen, asked to carry most of the exposition, occasionally sounds like a man reading his own warrant. The cases are the weak joint. Some episodes are tight and nasty and some wander, and the series has a habit of starting a story about the docks or the shipping lanes and forgetting why we should care about it by the half-hour. The effects, when it reaches for them, are not always up to the sets around them. The women are given less than the men: Amanda Hale as Emily Reid has a marriage hollowed out by a lost child to play, and does it well with little, but she is often left waiting at home in the way wives in these stories are. Buring’s Susan is the exception, a businesswoman who can out-think any man in the building, and the series gets better the more it lets her run it. It ran to five seasons, the last two of six episodes rather than eight, and the cast widened as it went: David Dawson’s reporter Fred Best, Damien Molony’s Albert Flight, Leanne Best’s Jane Cobden, Matthew Lewis’s Samuel Drummond. The longer arcs suit it better than the cases. When it stops asking who killed this week’s body and starts asking what these three men have done to each other, it is a different and better programme, and it knows this about itself sooner than we expected. It is a 15 certificate and earns it, mostly on the dissecting table. Watch it in the evening with the lights low and do not try to follow every clause; the faces will tell you what the sentences were for. *Fi1m score 74, published 7 October 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics take to Ripper Street as a proper, gripping crime drama that works from the first episode, with no settling-in period needed. The praise clusters on the cast, particularly the central trio and the ease between them, and on the look of the series: a grimy, convincing sense of place built by the production design, with lively scripts and well-staged fights on top. Even those with reservations find the brooding atmosphere and the core performances carry it. The reservations are about depth and plotting rather than performance. Variety finds the second episode weaker and objects to unconvincing effects and a thinness beneath the atmosphere, and Digital Spy, the one mixed voice, finds a later episode dully plotted and loosely focused, rescued only by a Western-style showdown and a menacing villain. The spread is fairly narrow, though, and the one critic writing after the finale finds it a melancholy, sentimental farewell to five seasons of pulpy escapism. ## Straight answers **Is Ripper Street worth watching?** *Ripper Street* is worth watching for anyone who likes a Victorian police drama built on its characters rather than its cases, and we scored it 74. The talk is ornate and some episodes wander, but Matthew Macfadyen, Jerome Flynn and Adam Rothenberg are worth the evening, and the longer arcs suit it better than the weekly murders. **How long is Ripper Street, and what is it rated?** *Ripper Street* has episodes of about 1h 00m and is rated 10 by the CNC in France. It is a drama and mystery series. **Where can I watch Ripper Street in France?** *Ripper Street* is available to buy from Apple TV. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service. **How violent or frightening is Ripper Street, and is it suitable for children?** *Ripper Street* is a 15 certificate and earns it, mostly on Homer Jackson's dissecting table, where wounds are examined under a lamp and explained at length. Drake's fights are shot tight and cut hard, and the opening case is a woman found cut about in an alley. It is not for children, and the squeamish should expect bodies rather than frights. **How does Ripper Street compare to Babylon Berlin?** *Ripper Street* is the smaller and plainer of the two, a Whitechapel police procedural held together by three men, where [*Babylon Berlin*](https://film.one/tv/babylon-berlin) is a busier, more handsome Weimar saga that takes on more plot than it can carry. The German series is the more lavish; the British one is easier to follow and warmer about its people. Choose by how much city you want around your detectives. **What should I watch after Ripper Street?** After *Ripper Street*, try [*Babylon Berlin*](https://film.one/tv/babylon-berlin) (2017, Fi1m 82): Weimar police work in a city that would rather dance than look at the bodies. Then [*Deadwood*](https://film.one/tv/deadwood) (2004, Fi1m 91): Mud, ornate speech and a town inventing its own law from nothing; and [*The Crimson Petal and the White*](https://film.one/tv/the-crimson-petal-and-the-white) (2011, Fi1m 68): Victorian London from the brothel’s side of the street, and sharper for it. ### Reviews we read (6) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Tim Goodman (90/100, inferred): Goodman finds the series riveting and compelling from its opening, with no need to wait for it to improve. He singles out the superb cast and strong writing, especially the central trio’s performances and camaraderie. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-reviews/bbc-americas-ripper-street-tv-412614/) - **The Guardian**, Sam Wollaston (85/100, inferred): Wollaston finds Ripper Street a gripping, proper crime drama despite its familiar ingredients. He praises its lively script, beautiful presentation and memorable fight scenes. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2012/dec/30/ripper-street-tv-review) - **The Telegraph**, Ed Power (85/100, inferred): Power finds the finale a beautifully melancholy and sentimental farewell after five seasons of pulpy escapism. He particularly praises its closing image of Reid alone with the old Ripper files. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/on-demand/0/ripper-street-season-5-finale-review-a-beautiful-melancholy-conc/) - **Variety**, Brian Lowry (70/100, inferred): Lowry finds the series worthwhile despite flaws and a weaker second episode. He praises the strong core cast and brooding atmosphere, while criticizing bogus effects and the lack of depth. [Read](https://variety.com/2013/tv/reviews/ripper-street-1117948999/) - **Den of Geek**, Jamie-Lee Nardone (80/100, inferred): Nardone finds the premiere dark, intense, and entertaining, and says it leaves viewers eager for the next episode. The review particularly praises the production design for creating a convincing, grimy sense of place. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/ripper-street-episode-1-review-i-need-light/) - **Digital Spy**, Alex Fletcher (3/5): The critic finds the episode underwhelming overall, with familiar problems of weak focus and dull plotting. They praise the Western-style showdown and the villain’s menace, but say the shipping-lane storyline drags. [Read](https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/cult/a459159/ripper-street-episode-seven-a-man-of-my-company-review/) ## Details - **Created by:** Richard Warlow - **Creator:** Richard Warlow - **Director:** Andy Wilson, Anthony Byrne, Tom Shankland, Kieron Hawkes, Luke Watson, Christopher Menaul, Colm McCarthy, Saul Metzstein, Daniel Nettheim, Ashley Way, Nick Rowland - **Writer:** Richard Warlow, Toby Finlay, Rachel Bennette, Matt Delargy, Jamie Crichton, Marnie Dickens, Julie Rutterford, Thomas Martin, Justin Young, Declan Croghan, Rob Green - **Producer:** Stephen Smallwood - **Cast:** Matthew Macfadyen as Edmund Reid; Adam Rothenberg as Homer Jackson; MyAnna Buring as Long Susan Hart; Charlene McKenna as Rose Erskine; Amanda Hale as Emily Reid; Jonathan Barnwell as Dick Hobbs; Leanne Best as Jane Cobden; David Wilmot as Donald Artherton - **Runtime:** 1h 00m - **Certificate (CNC):** 10 - **Release (France):** 30 December 2012 - **Genres:** Drama, Mystery, Crime - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQrbzWqGeNo ## Where to watch in France - Apple TV: buy, sd *Checked 2026-10-07.* Also available in: AT, AU, CA, CH, DE, FR, GB, IE, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Copper* (2012): New York’s Five Points in 1864, policed by men nearly as compromised as the criminals - *The Alienist* (2018): Gilded Age Manhattan, a serial killer, and the slow birth of forensic psychology - *Babylon Berlin* (2017), Fi1m 82: Weimar police work in a city that would rather dance than look at the bodies — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/babylon-berlin.md) - *Deadwood* (2004), Fi1m 91: Mud, ornate speech and a town inventing its own law from nothing — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/deadwood.md) - *The Crimson Petal and the White* (2011), Fi1m 68: Victorian London from the brothel’s side of the street, and sharper for it — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/the-crimson-petal-and-the-white.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/ripper-street