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The return of Ripper Street will give fans closure but there’s hope for series four
Season three of the revived Victorian crime drama will "hit an end point of sorts" but there's still plenty of opportunity for more episodes, says creator Richard Warlow
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When Ripper Street was first axed back in December 2013, no one thought a year later a new series would be poised to launch. But that’s exactly what’s happened, thanks to Amazon Prime Instant Video and the campaigning of fans who put 50,000 signatures to a petition to bring it back, as well as voting the Victorian crime drama the show of 2013 in the Radio Times annual poll.
Series two ended with plenty of questions – and the assumption that BBC1 would bankroll the third series. When that didn’t happen, the plight of Inspector Reid and H Division was taken up by the on-demand service earlier this year, but creator Richard Warlow will be more cautious this time around when it comes to leaving us hanging.
“Last season told us you can bank on nothing in this life so I really wanted to make sure everyone had hit an end point of sorts,” he tells RadioTimes.com of series three.
“I think the end of the first series was very much put together to reach a conclusion. That wasn’t the case with the second series because, perhaps arrogantly, I assumed we’d get more and now, I didn’t want to make that mistake again.”
MyAnna Buring – who plays Long Susan Hart, owner of Obsidian Estates and Captain Jackson’s estranged wife – agrees, adding, “[before] it was left with a confidence of knowing we’d come back whereas now it’s not the confidence that it couldn’t come back, it’s just the confidence that this is where they always wanted to get to.”
“On [the creators’] own terms, on the characters’ own terms and it doesn’t mean it’s all wrapped up,” adds Matthew Macfadyen, the man behind Inspector Edmund Reid.
So, no need to panic – Warlow says there’s “ample opportunity for more series” and adds, excitingly, that people are “making the right sounds.”
Although, if Ripper Street does return in 2015, it will be without their old production base at Dublin’s Clancy Barracks which has been home to the show’s Leman Street for the last three series.
“It’s going to be luxury apartments. Whatever happens, if it’s up to me I’ll try my best to get [Ripper Street] made in Ireland still but we’ll be looking for a new home.”
