ITV’s new Yorkshire Ripper drama is yet another ‘authentic’ northern tragedy told by a posh, southern voice

‘We don’t see much of an Emily Jackson who isn’t connected to her role as a wife and mother, or her sex work.’ Katherine Kelly in The Long Shadow. Photograph: Thomas Wood/ITV

It is a primetime drama that has been eagerly awaited but not necessarily welcomed – especially in some parts of the country. Last night, ITV aired the first episode of The Long Shadow, a seven-part series about the 13 women murdered by Peter Sutcliffe, known as the Yorkshire Ripper, between 1975 and 1980. The synopsis says it is “sensitively focusing on the lives of the victims who crossed his path and those of the officers at the heart of the police investigation”.

Raking over such painful memories was never going to be popular in West Yorkshire, where Sutcliffe carried out the majority of his attacks, and where women spent five years living in terror.