Ripper Street, episode eight, BBC One, review The Victorians were no slouches at forging a new frontier themselves but amid all the starch and bustle of period TV dramas one can garner the impression that these great inventors hid their light under a bushel. Come to think of it, what was more likely to be under a Victorian bushel, or a bush, was a body that had been disembowelled. The era of grimy cobbled streets, Dickensian workhouses and brutal murders carried out by some scary chap seem to have a particular hold on us. Not that I am complaining. I like a grisly murder case as much as the next man, especially if it involves the rescue of a damsel in distress by a handsome but troubled fellow with a fine pair of mutton chops and coke hat to match. Hanging on the frock coat-tails of the most infamous episode of Victorian butchery was Ripper Street (BBC One), a police drama set in 1889 in Whitechapel, in the East End of London. Episode eight, the last in the series, found Det Insp Edmund Reid (Matthew Macfadyen) and his team, Det Sergeant Bennet Drake (Jerome Flynn) and Capt Homer Jackson (Adam Rothenburg), at a low ebb. Well, certainly low for Capt Jackson, who was incarcerated by a vindictive Chief Insp Fred Abberline (Clive Russell) as the main suspect for the murder of a prostitute. But you know the way these things work and it was not too long before he was presented with a chance to prove his innocence and show that he was a good guy after all. Add the debonair and mendacious Victor Silver (David Oakes) to the mix, who, with his sister Clara (Ruta Gedmintas) and Neanderthal-like brother Barnaby (Kristian Nairn) was conducting a white slave trade from London docks to South America, and you have curl up, cosy TV, perfect for cold winter Sunday nights. Sure, it was heavily stylised, some of the lines were delivered in an almost comically portentous am-dram style, along with furrowed brow and anguished looks. You would not necessarily go out of your way to see it, but it was fun, and amid the "tasteful" gore a reason to be sanguine: a second series will follow this time next year.