ITV renames Peter Sutcliffe drama after complaints over 'disrespectful' title

ITV has renamed its upcoming Peter Sutcliffe drama following complaints from the victims’ families over the original Yorkshire Ripper title.

The seven-part true crime series will now be called The Long Shadow after the families suggested the original name would be ‘disrespectful’ and creating a ‘dark brand’ around him.

Sutcliffe killed 13 women and attempted to murder seven more between 1975 and 1980 before his arrived in 1981, while he was sentenced to 20 concurrent sentences of life imprisonment.

His sentence was changed to a whole life order in 2010, and he died three years ago in prison aged 74 after contracting covid.

George Kay – the screenwriter behind the show – has penned a script focused on the victims and police investigation into the murders.

Sutcliffe’s character only appears briefly in the series, and not until later episodes.

In a statement, to the Daily Telegraph, Kay said: ‘We started by calling it The Yorkshire Ripper but in the beginning we hadn’t learnt, as we did when making the show, that the moniker used to describe Peter Sutcliffe – which obviously began before anyone knew his real name, but continued after – was disrespectful in many ways.

‘The victims’ families certainly don’t want that name being applied to Peter Sutcliffe because it creates a dark brand around a man who doesn’t deserve that sort of attention, and especially not that verb.

‘That was one of our lessons. We’ve been working on this for four years and in that time we’ve met lots of people in all parts of this story.

‘We’ve tried to learn and change and understand their stories and their opinions, and so because of that the title changed from The Yorkshire Ripper.’

The relatives of seven of his victims and survivors previously criticised Netflix over the title of its four-part series The Ripper, which they were originally told would be called Once Upon a Time in Yorkshire.

In an open letter shared with the Sunday Times in 2020, they wrote: ‘The moniker ‘the Yorkshire Ripper’ has traumatised us and our families for the past four decades.

‘It glorifies the brutal violence of Peter Sutcliffe, and grants him a celebrity status that he does not deserve.

‘Please remember that the word “ripper” relates to ripping flesh and the repeated use of this phrase is irresponsible, insensitive and insulting to our families and our mothers’ and grandmothers’ legacies.’

The Long Shadow is coming to ITV1 and ITVX later this month.

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