ITV’s Whitechapel, stars Rupert Penry-Jones and Phil Davis, detectives in London’s Whitechapel district who deal with murders which replicate historical crimes. Joined by Steve Pemberton, the popular drama returns to ITV this Wednesday at 9pm with six new episodes, told in three two-part stories. Personally, I have to admit that it really took me bit to get into Whitechapel. Once I got past series one with the yet another Jack the Ripper copycat murder investigation storyline, I found the series to be brilliant and really come in two its own with excellent writing and superb performances by Penry Jones, Davis and The League of Gentlemen member and Psychoville co-creator (with Reece Shearsmith), Steve Pemberton.
 

 
Produced by Carnival Films, who also produce that little series we call Downton Abbey, Whitechapel debuted in 2009 dramatizing the search for a modern copycat killer replicating the murders of Jack the Ripper. The second series, dealt with copycat Kray Brothers who were English gangsters and the foremost perpetrators of organized crime in the East End of London during the 1950s and 1960s. Deviating a bit from its original format, series 3 still dealt with copycat crimes from some 200+ years prior but featured three separate stories.

As in all previous series, series 4 will have DI Chandler (Penry-Jones) and DS Miles (Davis) continue to retain the services of Ed Buchan (Steve Pemberton) as the team’s historical adviser. The new series, which premieres Wednesday on ITV1, will touch on historical crime precedents such as witchcraft, cold war espionage, ghoulish Victorian surgeons, cryptozoology and hidden horrors in the East End’s underground tunnels. Look for a U.S. broadcast sometime in 2014 on BBC America.