The Long Shadow: Series Premiere (ITV1 Monday 25 September 2023)

The Long Shadow: Series Premiere airs Monday 25 September 2023 on ITV1

What can we expect from this episode

The four young McCann children wake up to find that their mother Wilma has disappeared. DCS Dennis Hoban assumes leadership of the investigation after her body is discovered close to her home. Hoban knows that young women with “loose morals,” as the police would put it, don’t usually elicit public sympathy, so he uses the attention to focus on her role as a mother and her children who have been placed in foster care.

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, Emily and Sydney Jackson’s marriage is struggling as a result of money problems. Emily is frantic to scrounge up enough money to get them to the New Year as Christmas approaches. When a man at a bar mistakes her for a sex worker, she is disturbed and upset, but she sees no other way to provide for her family.

Emily starts doing sex work on Spencer Place, albeit hesitantly, as Hoban’s search for Wilma’s killer continues to stall. At the end of the episode, an arrest is made, and we see Emily getting into a mysterious car and driving off into the night on Spencer Place.

The Long Shadow is the definitive depiction of the desperate five-year hunt for serial killer Peter Sutcliffe, directed by BAFTA-winning director Lewis Arnold (Sherwood, Time, Des), and written by award-winning screenwriter George Kay (Hijack, Criminal: UK). The film also pays careful attention to the lives of the victims who crossed his path and the officers at the heart of the police investigation. Putting the victims, their families, and the survivors at the centre of a well-documented story, The Long Shadow offers a fresh take.

The series is based on Wicked Beyond Belief, Michael Bilton’s critically acclaimed account of the case published by William Collins, and is the result of extensive research and the use of the most extensive archive of the investigation, including hundreds of case files, interview transcripts, and police reports.

DCS Dennis Hoban, who initially led the enquiry, will be played by award-winning actor Toby Jones, and DCS George Oldfield, who famously took on the investigation, will be played by David Morrissey. DCS Jim Hobson is played by Lee Ingleby, while Emily Jackson is portrayed by Katherine Kelly, her husband Sydney Jackson is played by Daniel Mays, and their son Neil Jackson is played by Shaun Thomas.

Doreen Hill is played by Jill Halfpenny, and Jacqueline Hill is played by Daisy Waterstone. The cast includes Shaun Dooley as DCS Chris Gregg, Liz White as PS Meg Winterburn, Jasmine Lee-Jones as Marcella Claxton, and Molly Wright as Donna Deangelo.

Alexa Davies, Chloe Harris, Stephen Tompkinson, Jack Deam, Michael McElhatton, Adam Long, Ruth Madeley, Dorothy Atkinson, Rob James-Collier, Charley Webb, Steven Waddington, and Kris Hitchen round out the ensemble.

A single murder can cast a long shadow, and this one has cast a pall over an entire community. There were people who cared about each of the victims. The knowledge that more women were being victimised because the police couldn’t find their man brought a sense of failure, guilt, and shame to every officer. The death of a loved one can have lasting effects on the people left behind. Those who are stuck with their memories and the incomprehensible trauma they experienced for decades are serving their own life sentences.

Season 1 Episode 1

When can we see the episode

The Long Shadow: Series Premiere airs Monday 25 September 2023 at 21:00 on ITV1

Featured image credit: ITV1