Ripper Street

Radio Times spoke with Ripper Street Show creator, Richard Warlow and here's what we know about series 3 so far:

• There is no release day yet, but we shouldn't have to wait long
• Writing for series 3 stopped in mid-November and was restarted a month ago
• There are 9 weeks left to make the series.  (filming begins in May and ends in August)
• The show will jump 4 years ahead to 1894 
• The show will be heavily dealing with the aftermath of series 2 finale

"We are going to see the way the lives of our central characters have been univocally changed by the events of the end of the second series,"

• Long Susan will have a bigger role
• the railways will be featured
• Jack is back... or at least the ripper myth will be addressed again

One storyline will revolve around the Macnaghten Memorandum, a document written by Chief Constable Melville Macnaghten in February 1984 which outlined the theory that Jack the Ripper only had five victims and also named three possible suspects. "Macnaghten put together an internal memo on who he felt the prime suspects were," said Warlow. "It’s very interesting to me that floating around our coppers was this serious projection of the various different suspects – I’m interested to see what kind of affect that will have on them."

We're at the launch of #RipperStreet with Jerome Flynn, Matthew Macfadyen and MyAnna Buring pic.twitter.com/go7mGNUbIo

— Total TV Guide (@totaltvguide) February 26, 2014

Ripper Street will be back for a third series with filming to begin in May.  The show was saved due to Amazon Prime Instant Video (formerly LoveFilms VOD in the UK)

Head of Amazon Instant Video international content acquisition Jason Ropell said: "We're delighted to have secured not only the highly popular first two seasons of Ripper Street for our Prime Instant Video customers but we can also confirm today that we will be making season three, news that we know will delight the millions of fans of this brilliant British drama."

Initially the show will exclusively be shown on Amazon Prime Instant Video, but will be aired a few months later on BBC1.

The plan is "business as usual" for the third series, with the same cast, same eight episodes and no sanitisation of the sometimes grisly violence.  Because of the influx of US money from Amazon, the show will be filmed in England as well as Ireland.

Writer Richard Warlow revealed he is hoping for more series beyond the third and said that the new series will move forward and begin in 1894 and look at the development of the railways. It will continue the Jack the Ripper theme with a story involving the infamous McNaughton memorandum, which named three suspects in the case.

He also said the new arrangement will allow for "more bells and whistles" as he will not be writing exclusively for a BBC terrestrial audience.

MacFadyen said he was "surprised" when the show was axed by the BBC as he "thought it had legs" and said he is "delighted" Amazon has stepped in.

Guardian