'The Long Shadow', the story of a serial killer

The Long Shadow

is

an excellent British series in which one of

the fundamental data to take into account is the decade in which the events occur: the seventies of the last century, years in which London already enjoyed of a liberating social and cultural upheaval, while in the county of Yorkshire the police tried to arrest a serial killer of women.

Complicated times in which the economic crisis and unemployment drove in some cases quiet housewives to practice prostitution in order to feed their loved ones, that social sector in which the so-called “Yorkshire Ripper” initially chose his victims.

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The sober series shown by SkyShowtime and Movistar Plus+, far from the special effects or the morbid gloating over the murdered women, adds to the notable setting and costumes of the aforementioned decade numerous examples of deep-rooted social behavior: machismo, which in the case of The vast majority of the police officers who participated in the long period of the investigations reached levels of intolerable contempt towards women in general and colleagues in particular.

And before tearing your clothes over someone else's straw, a fact about the beam itself: until 1975, Spanish women could not open a bank account in their name without the consent of their husband, father or guardian.

Add to that that since sexist crimes began to be officially counted in 2003, there have now been 1,238 victims and you will understand that Spain is no different, despite those who long for the years of Franco's rule.

In total, there were 13 women murdered by Peter Sutcliffe in Leeds, Bradford and Manchester and five years spent by the police to discover and arrest the murderer, investigations led in reality by police officers played by heavyweights on the British scene, especially Toby Jones and David Morrissey, the latter in the role of George Olfield, responsible for most of the years of the police investigation and widely criticized for his obstinacy in following leads that led nowhere.

A special mention should be made of that splendid capacity for self-criticism exhibited in the seven chapters of

The Long Shadow

, written by George Kay and directed by Lewis Arnold, without shaking the foundations of British society.

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