A fascinating series. Not so much for the case in itself, appallingly fascinating though that is, but more for the picture given of society at that time. Visually the 70’s really were a dire time - and all those small moustaches that most men had - including yours truly, of course! The clips from the news and reports were also fascinating - not least because of the muddy quality of the image (we’ve got so used to HD and crystal clarity haven’t we!) And often the reporters, particularly the local ones, came across as terribly KEEN and sweetly earnest in their approach. And of course it was fun seeing reporters and TV personalities in their earliest iterations.
The best things that came across from this documentary was how dangerous it can be to take one element about a case (in this case that the killer was a Geordie based on a tape sent to the police) and to stick with that even when there were other very likely possibilities. Of course it is very easy to be wise after the event but even so… Also the toxic sexism of the world at that time, and in the police force, was something to behold - but the influence of the feminist movement and their growing strength was most fascinating. There was also the judgment about the victims and how the idea that he was only going after prostitutes (by unspoken definition, less ‘worthy’ than other women) was another strand clung onto to even when there was alternative evidence. And the differences in coverage and language used when an ‘innocent ’ 16 year old was killed was astonishing - the word innocent was even actually used with the implication that the others killed were not innocent i.e. ‘they had it coming’.
the other main revelation was what a major police investigation - or indeed any major undertaking by a large group of people undertaking a lengthy and complicated task - looked like in the days before computers; the astonishing amount of paper involved (necessitating the strengthening of floors!), the card index filing, the writing up by hand of notes and interviews - to our eyes it might seem amazing that anything signifcant was achieved.
The interviews with the police officers involved were fascinating - and depending on the nature of their involvement, their feelings now about the case and what they did were fascinatingly varied. |And the forensic pathologist who examined many of the bodies was riveting remarkably calm and yet speaking about the appalling things he saw with a degree of fascination and amazement. I suppose you have to develop that degree of detachment with that job.
But towards the end there was a fascinating connection with the present situation - there was something like a lockdown with women being advised not to go out late at night, to be accompanied by men - basically to not take any risks - and people at that time spoke about how ‘they couldn’t live under those sort of situations’, they ‘had to go out’ they had to socialise’ etc etc. And of course now…!
So a fascinating door into the past.,