Ripper Street returns: everything we know about series three so far

Here's what he told us..

- There's no release date yet, but you dedicated fans probably won't have to wait long. In terms of writing the third series, "everything went on ice in mid-November and was taken off ice about a month ago." "We now have nine weeks left to make the show," Warlow told us, adding that filming for the series will "wrap in August."

- You can say goodbye to the 1880s – the third series of Ripper Street is jumping forwards into a new decade. "We are moving forwards four years to 1894," revealed Warlow. In case you're interested, that was the year Blackpool tower was opened, King Edward VIII was born and Coca Cola was first sold in bottles...

- Unsurprisingly, these events won't feature heavily in Ripper Street's third series. Instead we will be dealing with the aftermath of the dramatic series two finale. "We are going to see the way the lives of our central characters have been univocally changed by the events of the end of the second series," Warlow told RadioTimes.com.

- Talking of those central characters, Long Susan is going to have more of a starring role in series three. "From the very beginning I’ve wanted to take [MyAnna Buring's character] on a very long journey," Warlow told us. "She’s going to come right to the forefront of things this time round... We had this thought at the beginning of the development process. We talked about [Long Susan] and how she should be like the unofficial major of Ripper Street... We wanted to evolve and that’s now what we get to do, so that’s terrific."

- There will be new challenges facing the Ripper Street gang, too. "We are going to get involved with the railways this time around," said Warlow. And Jack is back as the show returns to the its original mystery: "In a non-kind of procedural way we are going to delve into the further, latter years of the Ripper myth."

- One storyline will revolve around the Macnaghten Memorandum, a document written by Chief Constable Melville Macnaghten in February 1984 which outlined the theory that Jack the Ripper only had five victims and also named three possible suspects. "Macnaghten put together an internal memo on who he felt the prime suspects were," said Warlow. "It’s very interesting to me that floating around our coppers was this serious projection of the various different suspects – I’m interested to see what kind of affect that will have on them."

- The move to Amazon Prime Instant Video might just see the show trying out new things. "There will be opportunities for us to do things that perhaps we might have shied away from, if it were just for a BBC 9 o’clock audience," Warlow told us.

- But fans needn't worry that the show they know and love will change beyond recognition. "Ripper Street has a very particular style and we won’t be making any compromises as far as that’s concerned going forwards," assured Warlow.

- While series three might be at the forefront of everyone's minds at the moment, that might not be all we can look forward to when it comes to Ripper Street. "We’d love to make a fourth series," Warlow told us. "Obviously there’s no commitment but [Amazon] are very enthusiastic about the future life of the show. They wouldn’t be going to all this trouble just for one series..."

Ripper Street will return for a third series on Amazon's streaming service Amazon Prime Instant Video.

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