Skip to content
Ripper Street is, or rather was, BBC1’s Victorian crime drama, which was cancelled after two series following lower-than-expected ratings versus expensive production costs. A short while back, it was revived from the dead but where it would be screened was not confirmed. However, now it has been.
Remember Lovefilm? Now it’s been renamed as the rather unwieldly Amazon Prime Instant Video service. Yes, it just rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it. Still, if you’re aware of Netflix then you’ll know what to expect.
Amazon Instant Video allows you to buy more than 50,000 top new movie releases, must-see TV shows and all-time classics (many in High Definition) all available to download or stream on the widest variety of popular devices including Kindle Fire HD, iPad, iPhone, PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Wii, Wii U. Amazon Instant Video is also available on hundreds of TVs, set-top boxes and Blu-ray players from LG, Sony and Samsung and, of course, via PC, laptop or Mac.
The BBC aren’t escaping the costs completely, as they’ll contribute towards them along with broadcast partners including BBC America and the Irish Film Board. As such, after the show has premiered on Amazon, it’ll air on BBC1 a few months later. Amazon will also have streaming rights for the first two series.
Filming for Ripper Street Series 3 will begin in May, but a premiere date has yet to be announced. Programme makers Tiger Aspect and Lookout Point say series 3 will go ahead as originally planned with eight episodes, the same budget and “slightly more bells and whistles” than the first two series.
On the BBC’s cancellation of the show, Will Gould of Tiger Aspect sympathised with what he called really tough decision” for the broadcaster. He said “It wasn’t a decision made easily. It’s competitive out there and the second series didn’t do as well as they wanted it to, for all sorts of reasons.”
Jason Ropell, Head of Amazon Prime Instant Video’s International Content Acquisition, added “We’ve turned a difficult decision for the BBC into a great opportunity for all of us. Those tough decisions about what to cancel and what not to cancel. I wouldn’t want to make them. They’re difficult. But this is a really great opportunity for us both.”
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.