New York – Amazon will commission a third season of BBC America’s axed drama series Ripper Street, it was announced on February 26. From producers Tiger Aspect Productions and Lookout Point, Ripper Street will continue to be co-produced by BBC America and premiere it in the U.S.
In a new landmark deal, Amazon’s Prime Instant Video has acquired U.K. subscription streaming rights. Episodes will be offered exclusively on Prime Instant Video before screening on BBC One a few months later.
The BBC had cancelled the show last December due to poor ratings. Following that, an online fan base of just under 14,000 fans signed a petition to get the show back on TV.
Starring Matthew Macfadyen (Anna Karenina), Jerome Flynn (Game of Thrones), Adam Rothenberg (Elementary) and MyAnna Buring (Downton Abbey) and created by BAFTA nominated Richard Warlow (Waking the Dead, Mistresses), the crime drama is set against the notorious ‘H Division,’ the Police Precinct charged with keeping order on the meanest streets imaginable — late Victorian London’s Whitechapel district. The eight-part second season premiered in the U.S. on BBC America on February 22.
The series is a vivid, sensual and violent drama that explores the lives of those who have seen the worst of humankind, but who nonetheless struggle each day to bring law to the lawless in the dark heart of London, as it stumbles toward the twentieth century. Filming on season three will begin in May 2014.
