The Yorkshire Ripper Files: a Very British Crime Story (2019)

Not long after The Ripper Hoaxer: The Real Story (2006)*, I’ve just seen The Yorkshire Ripper Files: a Very British Crime Story (2019)**. 

Whilst the 2006 film focuses entirely on the hoax and its effect on the investigation, the 2019 miniseries (3 episodes) is about the case as a whole—the victims, the investigation, the media, and the mood in Yorkshire at the time (the 70s-80s). 
Arguably, it is about the Yorkshire Ripper case from a feminist perspective: 
- Placing the victims, not the murderer, in the centre—focusing on their lives, speaking to their families, discussing the way they are portrayed or described by the police/ the news, etc. 
- Examining the effect of the murders on women in Yorkshire—from fear to suggested curfew and feminist protests. 
- Examining misogyny and prejudice against prostitutes among the West Yorkshire police, and how it led to misassumption and other errors in the investigation. 
That is where the problem lies. The filmmaker doesn’t set out to find out what went wrong and why West Yorkshire police made mistakes, fell for the hoax, and dismissed key witnesses. Instead, she set out to explain it, and to prove that it was because of misogyny and prejudice against prostitutes. 
I’m not saying that it was not a factor, it was. The documentary does show that from early on, the police jumped to the conclusion that Peter Sutcliffe (the Yorkshire Ripper) must have been motivated by hatred of prostitutes, and anyone else who was not a prostitute must either have had “loose morals” or been a wrong target. The documentary also shows that not only the police but the press and the public at the time also made a distinction between prostitutes and “respectable women”, even saying things such as the “respectable women” were “innocent victims”, as though the prostitutes somehow deserved to be killed.   
In that way, the miniseries can be interesting. But as a whole, it is a weak documentary because of its obvious agenda. Sexism and prejudice against prostitutes alone cannot explain why the police fell for the hoax and changed the whole course of the investigation because of it without any basis, failed to make a connection between the 2 similar photofits, dismissed eye witnesses (survivors) and their similar testimonies, failed to see discrepancies between the profile built on eye witnesses’ testimonies and the profile built on the letters and tape (the hoax), ignored dissent, interviewed Peter Sutcliffe 9 times and let him go 9 times, and so on.  
In addition, a documentary, in my opinion, should tell the story and explore its subject without preconceptions, and let the audience judge as the events unfold. For most of The Yorkshire Ripper Files, especially because of the narration, it feels more like a long video essay than a documentary.  
That being said, it can be an interesting watch if you want to know more about the Yorkshire Ripper case and the mood in Yorkshire at the time. 




*: For whatever reasons, the only place where I can find information about the documentary is here: https://www.truenorth.tv/work/ripper-hoaxer-real-story/
However, the entire documentary can be watched here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t8JcOewaOM 
**: If you have BBC iPlayer, the miniseries can be found here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0003m05