Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *
Cast: Matthew Macfadyen, Jerome Flynn, Adam Rothenberg, Justin Avoth, Jonathan Barnwell, Lucy Cohu, Peter Ferninando, Amanda Hale, Michael McElhatton, Clive Russell, Derek Riddell.
The sixth instalment of the series Ripper Street, Tournament of Shadows, was one in which secrets were revealed, the memories of a turn of the 20th Century crime classic, a great historical backdrop was used, unfortunately sparingly and in the end had the awkward feel of an episode that would have been better had it been allowed to go in one direction rather than the three or four strands it tried to follow.
Although Ripper Street remains head and shoulders over everything that is on terrestrial television on a Sunday evening, this one blemish detracts from what could have been a serial drama of the upmost quality.
The premise of Tournament of Shadows sound great; spies in Victorian London, of which there were an abundance, especially in the Whitechapel area, the backdrop of the Dock Strike that hit London during the summer of 1889 but led to a lot of social reforms and the reason why Inspector Reid is the man he is, right down to the burns on his body. It had a lot going for it, especially with a cast that has proved its worth during the previous five episodes. However in the end, the story seemed to become a mish-mash of ideas, too many flights of fancy and historical people being used in a way that it is extremely doubtful that they would have acted in, no matter the provocation.
What was more worrying than the sight of Inspector Frederick Abberline, the scourge of police authority in the autumn of 1888 becoming a man who sold out a friend’s secret during the investigation was the way it all become so embroiled as if written by Joseph Conrad in his 1907 novel The Secret Agent. Although the book was set against a familiar time three years before the Dock Strike in 1889, some of the writing seemed to be more in tune with the fiction of that dangerous time than really showing the strike to its full potential.
What rescued the programme was the continuing disintegration between Reid and his wife and the portrayal of the Russian strike breaker and would be murderer Peter Morris by the outstanding Peter Ferninando. His gravelled, passionate tones and the acting intensity were of the highest order and more than a match for Reid and his men.
There is always an element of fiction in any story based in fact but sometimes to place too much emphasis on the unreal narrative can be off putting.
The series is nearly over and it has been one of incredible quality, however there is always one episode that belies that television rule it seems.
Ian D. Hall