Yorkshire Ripper dropped from new show title after victims complaints

“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,” he said.

“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.”

Kay added: “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 Long Shadow will come to ITV1 and ITVx later this month, and stars Toby Jones as detective Dennis Hoban, and David Morrissey as his successor George Oldfield.

Elsewhere, Katherine Kelly plays Sutcliffe’s second victim Emily Jackson, with Daniel Mays playing her husband Sydney.