Ripper Street: The Return of the Elephant Man

Joseph Merrick, popularly known as The Elephant Man, will be appearing in the first two episodes of the upcoming second series of Ripper Street.

Spoilers beware, but if you'd like to know more, visit the Radio Times

Joseph Merrick, the real life man who managed to withstand a life of terrible deformity and prejudice before his death in 1890, is to appear as a character in the series, which returns to BBC1 for later this year.

Played by actor Joseph Drake, Merrick is instrumental in episode one as a witness to some chicanery by a police officer. He also appears in episode two, set in the last days of his life at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel.

Also appearing in Ripper Street is the character of Frederick Treves, the compassionate and pioneering surgeon who rescued Merrick from his work in a Victorian freak show.

 

New characters also include the villainous Detective Inspector Jedediah Shine, played by Joseph Mawle, an unscrupulous officer described by the show's writer Richard Warlow as the “dark opposite” to the hero, Edmund Reid played by Matthew Macfadyen.