--- title: "The Long Shadow" year: 2023 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/the-long-shadow" fi1m_id: "the-long-shadow" imdb_id: "tt13323596" tmdb_id: 231811 wikidata_id: "Q121775351" fi1m_score: 74 critics_score: 73 critics_reviews: 6 published: "2026-10-07T20:06:42.998437+00:00" updated: "2026-10-07T20:06:43.151387+00:00" region: "US" 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." --- # The Long Shadow (2023) Created by George Kay · Crime, Drama ## Identity The Long Shadow - **Canonical:** https://film.one/tv/the-long-shadow - **Type:** Series - **Fi1m ID:** the-long-shadow - **IMDb ID:** tt13323596 - **TMDB ID:** 231811 - **Wikidata ID:** Q121775351 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13323596/, https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/231811, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q121775351 **Fi1m score: 74** · Critics 73 from 6 reviews *In a sentence:* Men in brown suits deciding which dead women count, while Toby Jones quietly disagrees > George Kay’s seven-part account of the Yorkshire Ripper years keeps its eyes on the women and their kitchens rather than on the killer, and is the better for it. Careful, angry and, at seven episodes, a long sit. ## Synopsis Leeds, October 1975. A woman is found dead on a playing field near her home, and Detective Chief Superintendent Dennis Hoban (Toby Jones) takes the case. Her children Richard (Dylan Hall) and Sonia (Alexa Goodall) wait at a bus stop for a mother who does not come. Hoban works the streets she walked, interviews the men who knew her and tells his Chief Constable, Ronald Gregory (Michael McElhatton), that this is not an ordinary murder. Gregory wants it closed quietly. Then another woman is attacked in the same way, and Hoban’s team, including DC John Nunn (Kris Hitchen), realises that the same man has done both. Over seven episodes the inquiry grows, changes hands and loses its way, while the women of West Yorkshire keep walking home. ## Review George Kay’s seven-part series takes the five years in which Peter Sutcliffe killed thirteen women in the north of England and tells them from two places at once: the incident rooms where West Yorkshire Police failed to catch him, and the front rooms of the women he attacked. The killer is kept to the edge of the frame, a shape in a car, a name arriving late. That is the series’ idea, and it is a good one, and for most of its length it holds. It first aired on 25 September 2023, carries a 15 and runs to seven episodes, which is at least one more than it needs. Toby Jones plays DCS Dennis Hoban, the Leeds detective who takes the first case in the autumn of 1975, and he is the best thing in it. Jones gives Hoban a tired decency: he goes to the dead woman’s house, sits with her children, Richard (Dylan Hall) and Sonia (Alexa Goodall), and understands that nobody above him much minds. Michael McElhatton’s Chief Constable Ronald Gregory minds about the newspapers. Lee Ingleby’s Jim Hobson and Jack Deam’s Les Hanley inherit the inquiry as it grows, and the series is honest that what it grows into is a card index rather than a hunt. The walking is done by the lower ranks, DC John Nunn (Kris Hitchen) and WPC Jenny Bush (Chloe Harris), and the series notices them without making saints of them. Lewis Arnold directs all seven episodes, which gives the thing a single temperature, and it is a cold one. Ed Rutherford shoots Leeds and Bradford in mustard, brown and nicotine under low grey skies, and lights the night streets with sodium orange, so that every woman walking home is in the same light the police keep describing in their appeals. Anna Higginson’s incident rooms fill up as the years pass, more desks, more boxes, more pins, until the scale of the failure is on the walls. Orla Smyth-Mill keeps the detectives in the same two suits for five years and the women in what they could afford. Sarah Warne’s score is spare, mostly low strings, and often absent; the kitchens are allowed their silence. Sacha Szwarc and Kyle Waters cut the attacks so that we see the street before and the house after and almost never the act itself, which is the right decision and a brave one for a series sold on a manhunt. One image stayed with us. Two small children at a bus stop in the early morning, in school clothes, waiting for a mother who is not coming, and the series does nothing to help it along: no music, no line, just the bus arriving and leaving without her. We found it hard to watch and harder to forget, and it is the moment that tells you what Kay is making. He is not making a thriller. That is also the trouble. A new woman arrives every episode or so, which is sound morally and costly dramatically: we are asked to attach ourselves and then move on, and by the fourth or fifth time the series is asking for more than it has earned. The police half is more familiar than Kay seems to think. The superintendent who shouts and the junior who is ignored are stock, and McElhatton’s Gregory is written to be wrong in every scene he enters, which makes him easy to blame and dull to watch. The series also underlines: a line of dialogue will tell us what the picture has just shown. The second half follows the inquiry down a wrong turning that the record describes and we will not, and here the length tells, because the mistake is made once and then shown being made for three hours. By the sixth episode we were angry, as the series means us to be, and we were also tired, which it does not. [*Red Riding*](https://film.one/tv/red-riding) (2009) took the same years and the same police and made them a fever dream; this is plainer and more useful, and it will be remembered for a list of names rather than for an image. Kay wrote [*Hijack*](https://film.one/tv/hijack) (2023), which runs on a clock; here he has deliberately taken the clock away, and the series is more honest and less gripping for it. Watch it one episode a night rather than all at once. It is not built for a weekend and it is not meant to be enjoyed. Its best moments are the quietest, and most of them have Toby Jones in them, or a woman at a sink. *Fi1m score 74, published 7 October 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics are positive about The Long Shadow, and the praise clusters in one place: its decision to keep the victims and their families at the centre rather than the man who killed them. Several reviews say the series conveys the horror of the attacks without showing them, and that this restraint is what makes it work. The i Paper goes furthest, calling it one of the better dramas of its year, while Den of Geek calls it exceptional and Digital Spy finds the approach effective and sensitive throughout. The reservations are quieter but consistent. Radio Times finds it gripping but short on subtlety, and the Evening Standard questions whether another dramatisation of this case was needed at all, even while praising Daniel Mays and Katherine Kelly. Den of Geek flags an error in how Emily Jackson’s choices are portrayed. The spread is fairly wide, from three stars to near-raves, with no review hostile; the doubters object to the subject, not the handling. ## Straight answers **Is The Long Shadow worth watching?** *The Long Shadow* is worth watching for anyone with the patience for a slow, angry account of the Yorkshire Ripper years told from the women's kitchens rather than the killer's car, and we scored it 74. It runs to seven episodes, at least one more than it needs, and it is better taken one a night. Toby Jones is the reason to stay. **Where can I watch The Long Shadow in the US?** *The Long Shadow* is streaming on AMC+, The Roku Channel, Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV in the US, and it is also available to buy from Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service. **How violent or frightening is The Long Shadow, and is it suitable for children?** *The Long Shadow* carries a UK 15 and is not for children: it is about the murders of thirteen women, and the dread of women walking home runs through every episode. The attacks themselves are mostly kept off screen, with the street before and the house after, so it is grim rather than gory. Teenagers who can take the subject will manage it. **How does The Long Shadow compare to Zodiac?** *The Long Shadow* and [*Zodiac*](https://film.one/film/zodiac) are both long investigations in which the police lose their way and the paperwork piles up, but Fincher's film is the more gripping and the more frightening. Kay's series is plainer and more useful, keeping its eyes on the victims and their families rather than on the hunt. Choose *Zodiac* for a thriller and *The Long Shadow* for a reckoning. **What should I watch after The Long Shadow?** After *The Long Shadow*, try [*Zodiac*](https://film.one/film/zodiac) (2007, Fi1m 91): Fincher’s decade-long investigation in which the paperwork is the horror. Then [*Appropriate Adult*](https://film.one/tv/appropriate-adult) (2011, Fi1m 84): Dominic West and Emily Watson, two rooms, and the banality of Fred West. ### Reviews we read (6) - **The i Paper**, Neil Armstrong (90/100, inferred): The critic calls the series brilliant and says it may be one of the year’s best dramas. They praise its focus on the victims and their families rather than sensationalising the killer. [Read](https://inews.co.uk/culture/television/the-long-shadow-itv1-review-best-drama-2023-2640431?ico=in-line_link) - **Radio Times**, James Hibbs (75/100, inferred): The review describes the series as gripping despite its lack of subtlety. It praises the drama’s respectful approach. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/the-long-shadow-itv-review/) - **Evening Standard**, Hamish MacBain (3/5): MacBain finds the series’ grim true-crime subject matter overfamiliar and questions the need for another dramatization. He praises the performances of Daniel Mays and Katherine Kelly, while criticizing the accumulation of gruesome murders on television. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/tvfilm/the-long-shadow-on-itv-review-peter-sutcliffe-yorkshire-ripper-b1108505.html) - **The Guardian** (3/5): The review gives the week’s television a three-star verdict and says The Long Shadow tries to subvert expectations. The standfirst singles out that attempt, but does not specify a further strength or complaint. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/series/observer-tv-reviews/2023/oct/01/all) - **Den of Geek**, Laura Vickers-Green (80/100, inferred): The critic calls the series exceptional despite a significant error in its portrayal of Emily Jackson’s choices. They praise its victim-centered approach and the attention it gives to the women’s lives. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/the-long-shadow-reveals-real-story-emily-jackson-one-exception/) - **Digital Spy**, Rebecca Cook (75/100, inferred): Cook finds the drama’s victim-centred approach effective and argues that it avoids sensationalising Peter Sutcliffe. She praises its sensitive storytelling, which conveys the attacks’ horror without depicting them. [Read](https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/a45301560/long-shadow-true-crime-story/) ## Details - **Created by:** George Kay - **Creator:** George Kay - **Director:** Lewis Arnold - **Writer:** George Kay - **Cinematography:** Ed Rutherford - **Editor:** Sacha Szwarc, Kyle Waters - **Music:** Sarah Warne - **Production design:** Anna Higginson - **Costume design:** Orla Smyth-Mill - **Producer:** Matt Sandford, Sarah Lewis - **Cast:** Michael McElhatton as CC Ronald Gregory; Jack Deam as DI Les Hanley; Lee Ingleby as DCS Jim Hobson; Kris Hitchen as DC John Nunn; Ben Cartwright as Michael Baxter; Alexa Goodall as Sonia McCann; Sorcha Groundsell as Nicola Briggs; Dylan Hall as Richard McCann - **Release (the US):** 25 September 2023 - **Genres:** Crime, Drama - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Opod-Itl8Xc ## Where to watch in the US - AMC+: streaming - The Roku Channel: add-on, hd - Amazon Prime Video: add-on - Apple TV: add-on, hd - Apple TV: buy, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy, sd *Checked 2026-10-07.* Also available in: AT, AU, CA, CZ, DE, DK, ES, FI, GB, HR, HU, NL, NO, PL, RO, SE, SK, US, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Red Riding* (2009): The same Yorkshire years as a trilogy of corruption, fever and rain. - *Zodiac* (2007), Fi1m 91: Fincher’s decade-long investigation in which the paperwork is the horror. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/zodiac.md) - *The Investigation* (2020): Danish procedural that refuses to show or name the killer at all. - *Appropriate Adult* (2011), Fi1m 84: Dominic West and Emily Watson, two rooms, and the banality of Fred West. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/appropriate-adult.md) - *Unbelievable* (2019): Two detectives, one disbelieved victim, and police work done properly for once. --- © 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/the-long-shadow