Discovery Channel - Bloody Britain (2004) Part 2 Jack the Ripper

When History Was Really Horrible! Rory McGrath presents an entertaining history series that uses animation to shed light on some of the goriest events in Britain's past. Fresh, innovative, entertaining and revelatory, Bloody Britain combines strong historical research and storytelling with hands-on historical experiments (such as building and firing a trebuchet), an entertaining but extremely passionate presenter and atmospheric and innovative animation. Bloody Britain examines key historical events from ground level – looking at the lives and perspectives of all those involved in these events – king and commoner alike. Action and information-packed, each show is a fascinating and at times squeamish journey through some of Britain's most gruesome and awful, but momentous, historical events. In each episode of Bloody Britain Rory McGrath examines a key event from British history. Whether it's battles, rebellions, wars, plagues, social unrest, betrayal, executions, injustice or mass insanity, we'll concentrate on the mad, sad and bad moments from our past. In short, we'll zoom in on when the past was truly horrible and ask why, when and how these events came to be part of our history. From learning the tactics of the siege, through to troop formations and allegiances of the people, Bloody Britain demonstrates that history is always more interesting when it was horrible.

Part 2 Jack the Ripper

Rory McGrath investigates the killings of Jack the Ripper, tracking a villain with a bloodhound to find out whether this method could have caught him. In 1888, London was a divided city. In the west, the rich led comfortable, pampered lives, but for the thousands of poor crammed into the slums of the east end, life was no party. Many shared one room with six or seven other people. Each night, up to 8000 women and children queued for a place in a lodging house. Women were so desperate they would prostitute themselves for a few pennies, or a loaf of bread. Many of the men who paid them for their services were affluent west end gents, slumming it in the dark, stinking streets of 'outcast London'.

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