The drama will depict one of the most notorious and shocking serial killer cases in the world, the hunt for Peter Sutcliffe, dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper, between October 1975 and January 1981, police undertook the biggest manhunt in British criminal history.
ITV note that its latest true crime drama, penned by acclaimed screenwriter George Kay, will follow ‘the desperate, cat and mouse hunt for Sutcliffe’ focusing on the police investigation and his victims.
“George Kay’s beautifully nuanced scripts shines a light on a case that defined the second half of the twentieth century and continues to cast a long shadow.” – Willow Grylls, Executive Producer
Based upon Michael Bilton’s highly praised book, Wicked Beyond Belief: The Hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper, George Kay’s scripts will focus on the lives of the Sutcliffe’s victims, the loved ones they left behind, and the everlasting toll the investigation took on the detectives who led the investigation.
What began as a series of murders on sex workers in Leeds, soon spread across the whole of the North of England, to women of all backgrounds, living in all different neighbourhoods. In all, Sutcliffe killed thirteen, and attempted to kill seven others. By the late 1970s, Sutcliffe had terrorised Britain creating a national obsession of finding out the killer’s true identity. He was finally caught in 1981 and was sentenced to 20 concurrent sentences of life imprisonment.
“In a story full with eye-watering statistics, one for me has always stood out: Peter Sutcliffe rendered 23 children motherless. That one fact in itself demands that any definitive drama about this case should encompass far more than just the story of a police investigation. We will focus not just on the police, therefore, but the victims, their families, those who were attacked but not believed, those who whose lives were permanently changed. This is not the story of a Ripper who hailed from Yorkshire, but the story of how Yorkshire was ripped apart.” – George Kay, Writer
The six-part series is produced by New Pictures in association with all3media international for ITV. Casting details will be announced closer to the date of film commencing.
