If ever there was a show that's been on a rollercoaster of a journey to stay on the air, it's Ripper Street. The Victorian drama originally aired on the BBC, only to be dropped after two seasons, leaving fans outraged to the point that they started an online petition to get the show to return. In walks Amazon Prime who took on the series, put a shed load of money into it, and then ended up selling it BACK to the BBC so it could be shown on the British broadcaster as well as the streaming service.
Now however, it's bad news for the show as Amazon have announced that Ripper Street will finish after its upcoming fifth season, which has already started filming in Dublin.
It will be disappointing news for the Irish film industry with a lot of local cast and crew part of the production, including Irish actors Charlene McKenna and Killian Scott.
A representative of Amazon said of the news; "We were pleased we were able to bring the continuation of the series to Ripper Street fans in the UK when it was cancelled by the BBC. It was by mutual agreement that the story would wrap up after series 5."
In fairness, we'd assume fans will take this news on the chin and there won't be such an online storm this time round. They've had three more seasons than they expected so will have had plenty of time to think about how the story will wrap up, while Amazon brought a much higher production value to the show.
Still though, we'll miss Reid, Drake, Rose and the gang. At least we'll still have Jerome Flynn as the trustee Bronn in Game of Thrones to look forward to.
