Jack the Ripper – 1973 TV, various

by Allan Fish

(UK 1973 300m) not on DVD

For all the Mrs Fiddymonts in the world

p  Paul Bonner, Leonard Lewis  d  David Wickes, Gilchrist Calder, Leonard Lewis  w  Elwyn Johns, John Lloyd

Stratford Johns (Det.Chief.Supt.Barlow), Frank Windsor (Det.Chief.Supt.Watt), Gordon Christie (Abberline), Hilary Sesta (Catherine Eddowes), Basil Henson (Charles Warren),

Just type ‘Jack the Ripper’ into Youtube’s search engine and stare into the abyss; dozens of videos of all kinds, from Screaming Lord Sutch to video phone recordings of Ripper walks to video game menus, plus a host of documentaries on various suspects.  None run longer than an hour and a half, and all look into the matter in such cursory detail as to make one wonder why no-one has had the idea to look into the events properly.  The main reason, naturally, is that the myth is always preferable to the facts, and any documentaries shown on TV on the subject these days assume the attention span of the viewer to equate to that of a gnat, and are often about new suspects where the evidence has been selected to fit the suspect rather than the traditional reverse of this process. 

Cinema has contributed to the myth via a host of films, two of which – the 1926 and 1944 versions of The Lodger, are great entertainments.  In addition there was the rather enjoyably trashy Sherlock Holmes versus the Ripper drama Murder by Decree with Christopher Plummer, James Mason and a wonderful comic scene involving a pea, and the Alan Moore comic book adaptation From Hell.  That had the advantage of a superb visual recreation of Victorian Whitechapel in Prague, but had little to do with the facts.  So where can one go for the facts?  Would-be Ripperologists would direct you rightly to the celebrated website casebook.org, but where can someone wanting a detailed analysis of the facts in audio-visual form go?

It’s years since the BBC or any other broadcaster was interested in treating such a sensational subject in such a restrained fashion, but the obvious downside to this is that it cannot thus look into some of the more fashionable subjects to have been ‘discovered’ in the intervening years; no mention here of Francis Tumblety, David Cohen, James Maybrick, Joseph Barnett (at least not as a suspect) or my own personal favourite, or least unlikely, William Henry Bury.  But in all other aspects it ticks every box you could hope for, going in detail through inquests, victims, social problems, politics, legal, police and medical procedures. It’s told over six episodes, running five hours, in the form of a dramatized documentary.  It takes the beloved police chiefs from Z Cars and Softly, Softly, Barlow and Watt, and sets them after Jack by means of a busman’s holiday from Lancashire to London.  (As they themselves say, doctors study old cases, architects study ancient buildings, so we go over celebrated crime.)  Their discussions in a hotel room are juxtaposed with recreations of the crimes and testimonies from the inquest witnesses (a few joyous cockney clichés among them – “It was ‘is eyes.  ‘Is eyes were as wild as a hawk’s!”).

This then fresh narrative methodology may now seem old hat, but for its detail it’s impossible to fault.  The first three episodes go through the facts surrounding the five canonical victims, while the fourth and fifth go into the contextualisation of the crimes, leaving the last episode for their joint conclusion.  At the time, this finale caused a great stir for giving the first details of what became disparagingly known – and not without good reason – as the royal conspiracy.  That and some of other more fanciful theories are to be dismissed, but the frustration the pair feel at being unable to finger their man have been echoed by anyone looking into the crimes since.  It may not be of massive interest to those without an already established curiosity regarding the events of 1888, but its value goes beyond its status as the most historically important Ripper programme or film ever made.  Co-director Wickes was also responsible for the Michael Caine Ripper drama 15 years later, but despite Caine’s performance, there’s no doubt which is the greater, helped immensely by the effortless chemistry of its two sardonic leads.  Such a shame the only prints are taken directly from the BBC archives, avec clock counter.