West Yorkshire, 1980; an outsider (Paddy Considine) is brought into the local police force in an attempt to inject fresh blood into the hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper, but he’s not welcomed with open arms. The middle part of this trilogy is the most “cinematic” of the films, delivered in widescreen by the innovative director of Man on Wire (2008). New pieces of the puzzle are added; the movie deals with the sensational real-life case of the Yorkshire Ripper, but it is a testament to the power of David Peace’s story about extreme corruption that the serial killer ends up being a lot less interesting than the agenda of these dangerous cops. 

2009-Britain. Made for TV. 97 min. Color. Widescreen. Produced by Wendy Brazington, Andrew Eaton, Anita Overland. Directed by James Marsh. Teleplay: Tony Grisoni. Novel: David Peace. Cinematography: Igor Martinovic. Cast: Paddy Considine (Peter Hunter), Jim Carter (Harold Angus), Warren Clarke (Bill Molloy), Sean Harris, David Morrissey, Peter Mullan… Eddie Marsan, James Fox, Andrew Garfield.

Trivia: Released theatrically in the U.S. The other two films in the series are Red Riding: In the Year of Our Lord 1974 and Red Riding: In the Year of Our Lord 1983.

Last word: “In the British isles you get in tune with the various accents, you hear people from Scotland and you hear people from Newcastle and it’s part of your linguistic repertoire, whereas Americans don’t get the same kind of exposure to the endless variety of English that are spoken in the British Isles. ‘Red Riding’ was released with subtitles and I was very happy about that.” (Marsh, Film.com)

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