Recently, the Irish cast of Ripper Street had a screening of the first episode and it has universally received raves. Here is a review by Entertainment.ie, who managed to attend this screening. The following are some of the comments:
The lavish pilot episode does a fantastic job of recreating the setting - all cobbled streets, grimy civilians, roads paved with trash and prostitutes. Director Andy Wilson, fresh of Sky One’s mini-series Sinbad, gets great performances from his three leads [Matthew Macfadyen, Jerome Flynn and Adam Rotherberg] and does a good job of making writer/series creator Richard Warlow’s (Waking The Dead) complicated plot-lines very easy to understand. There are some obvious sources of inspiration to the show, especially the Robert Downey Jnr Sherlock Holmes movies, from the fiddle-based soundtrack to the stories involving newly emerging technologies.
The reviewer goes on to comment
...the show is of a far more adult nature than might be expected; the initial murder leaves some particularly violent wounds on the victim, and there is a lot of sex and nudity...
And to sum up what is ahead
the story does set up the beginnings of some intriguing bigger arcs that should have audiences coming back for more week after week.
Be sure to read the full review HERE.
Movieplayer.it did an interview in Italian with Matthew Macfadyen for Ripper Street. You can read the interview in Italian 