Ripper Street Series 4: six things you need to know as Matthew Macfadyen's DI Edmund Reid returns to Whitechapel

The hit show is starting to move towards its end-game in its fourth run
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Joni Blyth23 August 2016

After three weeks of summer fun in Rio, the BBC is returning to 19th century Whitechapel in Ripper Street.

Many viewers may have caught up on the hit period drama since Series 3 finished last year - or have even seen this series itself on Amazon Video, who took over production in 2013.

If you’re feeling rusty on all things Ripper, here are six things to know before you dive back into the murky world of DI Edmund Reid and co.

1) The end is nigh for these East End Bobbies

The show’s creator Richard Warlow is adamant that the show will not enter the 20th century. Written and filmed as one long story, the show will be capped off by a final fifth series next year, with the narrative ending at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve, 1899.

2) The past will have consequences

Warlow also is keen to emphasise that he is not wasting this opportunity to deliver a real ending for the series. After being left in the lurch when the BBC decommissioned the show after Series 2, Warlow told the Radio Times he “was determined that our characters, and their followers, would not be left in the lurch this time.”

He has ominously hinted that justice is coming to Ripper Street, particularly for Long Susan Hart, who is currently imprisoned for her involvement in the catastrophic train derailment last series.

3) Long Live the Queen

This season will kick off with the Diamond Jubilee celebrations for Queen Victoria - a three-year time jump from where we left off last series. As Whitechapel prepares to enter the new millennium, change will undoubtedly be in the air.

This will form a big part of the show moving forward, as tensions rise between the old and the new.

4) New Digs

No one will feel this tension more than our hero, DI Edmund Reid (Matthew Macfayden, back in the bowler hat), returning from his self-imposed seaside exile to find a new police station, staffed by new police officers and led by his old right-hand man Bennet Drake (Jerome Flynn).

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5) Hot Fuzz

A mix of familiar and fresh faces will be wandering Whitechapel this time around, including Reid’s old friend Isaac Bloom, now accused of murder.

Meanwhile Matthew Lewis makes an entrance as Sergeant Sam Drummond, with the famously sexy Harry Potter star sporting a spectacular moustache which he grew for this series.

Frank Gallagher also looks set to make his mark on the East End as Shameless’ David Threlfall joins the series - his roguish Abel Croker casts a long shadow over the docks of London.

6) CSI: Whitechapel

Be ready to wow at the pinnacles of modern technology, as the young cohort of new police officers bring the future to Leman Street Station.

"I'm at the forefront of this new generation of policemen who have a new weapon in their armoury," says Lewis.

"The technology of the era is advancing so I'm trying to get everyone to use a telephone and this wonderful new device called a microreader."

Monday, 9pm, BBC Two

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