# Ripper Street - new BBC show **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 3, 2013, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ripper-street-new-bbc-show/645964 "2013-01-03T16:15:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2013, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ripper-street-new-bbc-show/645964/41 "2013-01-24T21:27:58Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Wait a minute, my joke “The English invented a language they cannot speak” is TRUE? I think it’s just poorly recorded. The tinny speakers they put in flat screen TVs these days don’t help. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2013, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ripper-street-new-bbc-show/645964/42 "2013-01-24T21:37:08Z")
> [@Mk\_VII](#): > > I think it’s just poorly recorded. The tinny speakers they put in flat screen TVs these days don’t help. We had stereo speaker cabinets. ---
**Author:** ![Weaver\_of\_Nightmares](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/73ab20/32.png) [@Weaver\_of\_Nightmares](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weaver_of_Nightmares)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2013, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ripper-street-new-bbc-show/645964/43 "2013-01-25T21:54:15Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Was he meant to be the first one to make a moving picture (i.e., film), within the show universe of course? I don’t think so. Reid recognised the film for what it was when they found it at the photographer’s dark room, so moving pictures already existed in this universe. > [@](#): > > I gathered from his expression during that scene that he was not at all enthusiastic about filming that. I still want to know why he was cooperating when he was clearly so not sanguine with what Arthur was doing. Was he being blackmailed into it? ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2013, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ripper-street-new-bbc-show/645964/44 "2013-01-25T21:56:05Z")
> [@Weaver\_of\_Nightmares](#): > > I don’t think so. Reid recognised the film for what it was when they found it at the photographer’s dark room, so moving pictures already existed in this universe. The first film (in the real world) dates from England in 1888. So its not inconceivable that Reid would’ve heard of the idea. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2013, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ripper-street-new-bbc-show/645964/45 "2013-01-25T22:45:35Z")
Anyone else think that the actor who plays Reid looks an awful lot like Clive Owen? That’s who I thought it was until I saw the credits. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ripper-street-new-bbc-show/645964/46 "2013-01-26T18:52:59Z")
> [@Weaver\_of\_Nightmares](#): > > I don’t think so. Reid recognised the film for what it was when they found it at the photographer’s dark room, so moving pictures already existed in this universe. No he didn’t. He was earlier shown with a magazine depicting [Muybridge’s series of photographs depicting a horse in motion](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muybridge#Stanford_and_horse_gaits). Various devices, like the [zoopraxiscope](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoopraxiscope) existed to turn to individual photographs into continuous motion. The implication is that he made the mental leap from the individual photographs in the magazine to the strip of frames on celluloid and from there went directly to snuff films. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ripper-street-new-bbc-show/645964/47 "2013-01-26T19:13:42Z")
Yes, that’s the leap I had problems with. I remember reading that in the early twentieth century audiences being shown film of a train moving toward the camera were in a panic because they thought it was real. So it’s hard to imagine that one of the first uses of film/motion pictures would be snuff films. (I mean even in the realm of pornography, that’s something of _very_ limited interest.) ---
**Author:** ![What\_the](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f4b2a3/32.png) [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ripper-street-new-bbc-show/645964/48 "2013-01-27T14:42:32Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > Which isn’t to say Ripper doesn’t require some suspension of disbelief… Does that include the photographic (stills) process that existed at the time? Did they still use plates? In the opening scene it seems like he would have needed a cartload to take all the pictures that the detective wanted. Also it seemed like a photograph got developed faster than I thought was possible later in the show. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2013, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ripper-street-new-bbc-show/645964/49 "2013-01-29T01:24:18Z")
We watched the second episode tonight. I need some spoilers. Who is the woman friend of the Pinkerton guy? Wife, lover, sister? I presume they whacked some guy, who as the American would say, “Needed killin’”. What’s with the ring? Who is the “she” Reid’s wife is so upset about? ---
**Author:** ![Strainger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/strainger/32/244_2.png) [@Strainger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strainger)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2013, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ripper-street-new-bbc-show/645964/50 "2013-01-29T01:45:10Z")
I confess, like carnivorousplant, I struggled to follow the episode as well. I think it’s because I struggle with the accents, much moreso than with other British shows. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2013, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ripper-street-new-bbc-show/645964/51 "2013-01-29T01:56:09Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > We watched the second episode tonight. > I need some spoilers. > Who is the woman friend of the Pinkerton guy? Wife, lover, sister? > I presume they whacked some guy, who as the American would say, “Needed killin’”. > What’s with the ring? > Who is the “she” Reid’s wife is so upset about? This is all B-plot that’ll presumably get fleshed out later. Right now they’re just planting seeds. I quite liked the episode, in no small part because of this stuff. ---
**Author:** ![DummyGladHands](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/49beb7/32.png) [@DummyGladHands](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DummyGladHands)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2013, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ripper-street-new-bbc-show/645964/52 "2013-01-29T02:46:42Z")
Loving it!! As mentioned, just hope it doesn’t disintegrate to Copper. ---
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2013, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ripper-street-new-bbc-show/645964/53 "2013-01-29T19:00:04Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > We watched the second episode tonight. > I need some spoilers. > Who is the woman friend of the Pinkerton guy? Wife, lover, sister? Seems to be a partner in crime. They haven’t made it especially clear, but he’s clearly sleeping with other people. > [@](#): > > I presume they whacked some guy, who as the American would say, “Needed killin’”. > What’s with the ring? They’ve been vague, but the ring was stolen from a bigwig. Said bigwig (or his people) are looking for it, and the man who stole it. That’s why Jackson was so desperate to recover it. Reid seems to know part of the story, but not all of it, and is willing to cut Jackson some slack. For now, anyway. > [@](#): > > Who is the “she” Reid’s wife is so upset about? Their daughter, who is either missing or dead. Based on Reid questions to the caretaker of the orphanage about missing girls with no memory of their parents, it seems he holds out some hope that she is alive somewhere. I also think it is related to his burns somehow. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2013, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ripper-street-new-bbc-show/645964/54 "2013-01-29T20:22:23Z")
Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2013, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ripper-street-new-bbc-show/645964/55 "2013-01-30T16:00:50Z")
The BBC has ordered a second series (season, whatever). > **[Ripper Street to return for second series](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/jan/29/ripper-street-second-series)** > > Gritty detective drama set in Victorian London starring Matthew Macfadyen has been a hit on BBC1 and BBC America. By Maggie Brown It’s had good viewing figures in the domestic market so far - averaging 7.7 million viewers and 22.9% market share - so no surprise they want more. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ripper-street-new-bbc-show/645964.md?page=2)