This Is Personal: The Hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper (TV 2000)

This is a dramatisation of the real-life investigation into the notorious Yorkshire Ripper murders of the late 1970s, showing the effect that it had on the health and career of Assistant ... See full summary »

Director:

David Richards

Writer:

Neil McKay

Stars:

Alun Armstrong, Richard Ridings, James Laurenson

5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Alun Armstrong	...	Asst. Chief Const. George Oldfield
Richard Ridings	...	Det. Supt. Dick Holland
James Laurenson	...	Chief Const. Ronald Gregory
John Duttine	...	Det. Chief Supt. Jim Hobson
Gerard Horan	...	Detective Chief Superintendent John Domaille
Stephen Moore	...	Professor David Gee
Claire Webzell	...	Sonia Sutcliffe
Paul Angelis	...	Det. Chief Supt. Jack Ridgeway
Pip Donaghy	...	Det. Chief Supt. Will Brooks (as Pip Donaghay)
Howard Ward	...	Det. Supt. John Stainthorpe
Jim Millea	...	Det. Insp. John Boyle
John Graham-Davies	...	Det. Insp. Tony Glendenning
Andrew Readman	...	Det. Sgt. Peter Smith
David Prosho	...	Det. Sgt. Parks
Katharine Rogers	...	WPC Sue Neave

Storyline

This is a dramatisation of the real-life investigation into the notorious Yorkshire Ripper murders of the late 1970s, showing the effect that it had on the health and career of Assistant Chief Constable George Oldfield who led the enquiry.

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Plot Keywords:

ripper | yorkshire | murder | police | mass murder | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

26 January 2000 (UK)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Granada Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

120 min 120 min (2 parts)

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Soundtracks

"Thank You for Being a Friend"
Performed by Andrew Gold

User Reviews

Excellent Docu Drama

The whole point of why the Police are made to look clueless is because I'm afraid that is exactly what happened. If you did not know about the case you would think the same way as Boba Fett, in that its that ridiculous it cannot be true. Unfortunately all the major incidents and mistakes made by the Police portrayed in this 2 part series actually did happen. We should not forget that if the Ripper was to have practised his evil ways the year 2000 he would have been caught extremely quickly with all the advances in modern technology.

This is the late 1970s. No DNA testing, No Super Computers, No CCTV to name but a few.

Alan Armstrong gives an absolutely first class performance of George Oldfield and steals the show.

We are shown how much pressure the West Yorkshire Police force were under and how they were unable to deal with an investigation of such evil magnitude.

In hindsight it is very easy to criticise the Police however the programme takes great detail in explaining how they were sidetracked by the hoax letters and tapes which allowed Sutcliffe to continue for another 3 years and how in the end he was caught not by their great detective work but by pure chance.

If you read in detail about the Ripper case and the Police enquiry into it, some of the mishandling by The Police was astounding. If you don't know a little about the case it's easy to imagine its all fiction.

I think this programme is excellent viewing for anyone who is unaware of the case and offers an insight into the difficulties they had in the late 1970s.

A bit more detail could have went into the numerous alibis given for her husband by Sonia Sutcliffe as in my opinion this was the other reason, along with the tape, for him eluding capture for so long.