Episode list

In the wee hours of the morning, a Police Community Support Officer discovers the body of a woman lying in a yard. The victim is Cathy Lane and the medical examiner determines she was strangled and that her throat was slit. The attack probably lasted no more than a few minutes but the killer tried to gut her as well. The police, led by newly appointed DI Joe Chandler, at first focus on her husband Rob Lees, a brute of a man who also happens to be a butcher, but he has the perfect alibi: he was in the drunk tank at Charing Cross station at the time of the murder. Ripperologist Edward Buchan suggests to them that this murder is identical to Jack the Ripper's first murder, and that another attack on Emma Jones also matches one from over 100 years ago. DI Chandler soon recognizes a pattern to the killings, much as Buchan suggested. His major problem however is that his squad, led by DS 'Skip' Miles, have absolutely no respect for him and see him as just another fast-track university graduate who knows nothing about policing on the street.

Despite having given a heads up to Commander Anderson about his theory, DI Chandler is called before a review board after a second murder takes place. Again, it has all the earmarks of Jack the Ripper's second murder 100 years ago and appears to vindicate his theory of the copycat killing. DS Miles checks with some of the girls who are on the game and there is a soldier, eventually identified as Pvt. John Leary, who's been roughing some of them up. They bring him in for questioning but he proves less than cooperative. As some of his squad begin to develop at least a modicum of respect for him, Chandler stuns them by coming up with another key piece of evidence: the killer's DNA which the pathologist got from the victims' eyeballs, the killer having apparently licked them at the time of the murder. With Leary refusing to cooperate, the forensic report on the DNA reveals it to be contaminated and the police are no further ahead. Chandler finds himself under pressure when the media gets hold of his copycat theory and it's apparent that one member of his squad has let the cat out of the bag. On the night of the next expected killing, the police make an arrest and Chandler puts DS Miles in charge of the interview. CCTV footage leads Chandler in a different direction.

The killer has struck again. With one of their own as the latest victim, the police have to prepare for what should be the final murder. From the CCTV footage, they are able to trace the driver of a van that was in the area and in which they find blood evidence. It is soon evident however that the murderer has in fact stolen someone's identity and the police come to yet another dead end. DI Chandler develops his own theory as to the identity of the original Ripper leading him to a block of flats where he is assaulted. Information in the killer's flat gives them the identity of the next victim, and they race desperately to locate her before the newborn Ripper strikes for the last time.