Review of first episode of BBC's Ripper Street

Well, the first episode has come and gone...

Great set selection, I thought the location chosen really hit the mark.

Interesting mix of characters, including bringing in Chief Inspector Abeline as the desperate and frustrated Ripper man...and his pet Hack!

Good storyline, a vaguely copycat murder, with some Ripper trademarks, but the crime photographer was a bit too easy a giveaway. Sorry BBC but he came out too early!

Expected the early reference to the Toff and his carriage to raise questions regarding Royal connections as still would be a talking point in 1889- missed opportunity.

I generally enjoyed the whole episode, and felt the line between good cop and bad cop was very well written, and hadn't changed much to when I was in the CID in the seventies and eighties.

Matthew Macfadyen as Inspector Edmund, a diligent but risk-taking leader; Jerome Flynn as the hardman and the 'go to' for advanced interrogation needs - Detective Sergeant Bennett Drake, and Adam Rothenberg as the intriguing Captain Homer Jackson, ex-Pinkerton man. Liked Jackson's yearning to improve his scientific skills. Seemed to want to spend a bit more time enhancing his knowledge of female anatomy, at close quarters...and in his own time. Devotion to duty or what?

The programme clearly demonstrated the close line between keeping the law and breaking the law, and as the saying goes...you can't win a war without fighting dirtier and harder than your opponent - which sadly our society seems to have forgotten at times!

Only thing that got me a bit concerned was the language, which at times seemed to lean towards Shakespearean rather than Dickensian, and with not a lot of Cockney anywhere to be heard - came across as almost American "Britishness" with a distant lack of awareness of vocal reality?

Very dramatic finish, if only reasonable force was as easily accepted today. However, it does ensure that episodes do not get bogged down with one nemesis!