Four’s Ripper trilogy

Ongoing Ripper investigations

It’s a bleak day outside MegaStar towers so we’ll cheer you all up with some uplifting movie news; Channel 4 are to make a trilogy of Yorkshire Ripper movies.

Yep, that news probably didn’t raise a smile but when you hear of the pedigree involved you may think again before spiralling into a pit of despair.

The trilogy will focus on the investigations to nail the notorious Ripper and will be adapted from novelist David ‘The Damned United’ Peace’s ‘Red Riding Quartet’ of books set in Yorkshire in the seventies and early eighties.

The complex storylines cover corruption and perversion of justice in the hunt for the Ripper from 1975 until his detection in 1981.

The Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe was convicted of murdering 13 women. He is currently serving multiple life sentences.

Material from the four books will be squeezed into three movies - Julian Jarrold (Becoming Jane) will direct Nineteen Seventy Four, James Marsh (Man on Wire) will direct Nineteen Eighty and Anand Tucker (And When Did You Last See Your Father?) will direct Nineteen Eighty Three.

Channel Four have already dipped their toe in British serial killer lore with the dark yet stunning Longford which starred Andy Serkis as Ian Brady and Samantha Morton as Myra Hindley.

Another Peace adaptation The Damned United about Brian Clough’s short-reigned stint as Leeds United boss is currently shooting, which we’re getting very excited about.

It’s weighty fare but us lucky blighters in the UK are likely to catch the Ripper films first on the box before the rest of the world has to trundle to the box office for a macabre history lesson.

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