Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Matthew Macfadyen, Jerome Flynn, Adam Rothenberg, MyAnna Buring, Joseph Mawle, Clive Russell, David Wilmot, Anton Lesser, Damien Molony Gillian Saker, Nicholas Woodeson, Tom Brook, Elva Trill, Paul Ready, David Dawson.
The past certainly is another country, not only do they do things differently there, but when it comes to Victorian society and the way they treated the more unfortunate members of society it may as well be on a land mass on a another planet in a far off galaxy.
The second series of the superb Ripper Street has delved smartly into the realm of those dark days and in the second episode, Am I Not Monstrous?, the sight of Victorian Freak Shows played a big hand in the fate of one of London’s more celebrated men, the much discussed Joseph Merrick, and one of his friends, Stella, and her unfortunate protrusion.
Am I Not Monstrous? though combines all the powder keg elements in Whitechapel that was taking the East-End into the realms of wild abandonment; the sideways anger boiling away in readiness for battle between Inspector Reid of H Division and the corrupt Jedediah Shine, the prospect of the thought of Eugenics as a science to keep the undesirable foundations of humanity to a minimum, if not eradicated completely and the ever increasing back street politics of prostitution. The question is, especially in the East-End of London, just who is pure enough to label the others monsters?
The makers of Ripper Street must be congratulated for bringing the sensitive story of Joseph Merrick to the fore in this particular story. His emerging from the dark shadows and walking down the East-End whilst under his trademark cap and smock and being abused by the small children of Whitechapel and the sheer disgust he gets from his fellow man is deplorable and it sometimes hard to understand that these events are not that long ago. The past may be another country, however how would these people who mocked and goaded the gentle Joseph Merrick view the 21st century equivalent of day time television programmes in which the weak and gullible are goaded into losing their temper and spilling their secrets to awaiting millions…the past it seems is closer than we may like to think.
Just who are the monsters at the heart of Victorian society? The feckless, the underhand, the evil of those who prey on the those in prostitution or the policeman who becomes corrupt enough to kill to keep a secret hidden? Ripper Street shines a light under the sometimes two-faced Victorian straight –laced society and the ugly nature of the era is not to be found in the kindness of the London hospital but on the streets that surround it.
Ripper Street is a series that keeps on giving!
Ian D. Hall