Ripper Street lives on – Amazon Prime confirmed today that it has recommissioned the Victorian detective drama for a fourth and fifth season.
Originally a BBC drama, Ripper Street was dropped after the second series, only to find a new online home for its third. The series, starring Matthew Macfadyen, MyAnna Buring, Jerome Flynn and Adam Rothenberg, follows the adventures of 19th-century policemen in London’s East End.
As we said in a review of the third, it’s been a successful transition: “It all feels a little bit bigger, certainly in ambition. With its unexpected revival, Ripper Street has grown broader shoulders and a more confident gait, while retaining the stillness that made it so impressive in the first place.”
The trend for cancelled shows being picked up online has been adopted by other TV streaming services: Netflix revived Arrested Development and picked up Tina Fey’s Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt after NBC passed on it; while Yahoo gave Community a new lease of life.
“It is a great privilege to be asked to continue this journey through Victorian Whitechapel,” says Ripper Street’s writer and creator Richard Warlow. “I had always hoped that Ripper Street would live to follow the world of ‘H’ Division right through to the end of the Victorian age itself.”
Macfadyen, who plays Detective Inspector Edmund Reid, says: “I’m delighted to be embarking on another dose of Ripper Street – blood and guts, pocket watches and Victorian headgear, wonderfully dark, moving and mysterious story lines from Mr Richard Warlow.”
