Katherine Kelly is a name that needs no introduction, quite frankly. Thanks to her standout performances in Happy Valley, Cheat, Criminal:UK and Innocent (among others), her name has become synonymous with excellent TV – and that legacy seems set to continue with her upcoming role in The Long Shadow.

Created by Lupin’s George Kay, the meticulously researched true crime drama seems as if it’s set to tread familiar waters by poring over the crimes of serial killer Peter Sutcliffe. Unlike so many series before it, though, The Long Shadow makes the bold decision to write the murderer out of the story.

“Peter Sutcliffe has a very, very small part in this story because we don’t need to know any more about him,” says Katherine firmly. “Anything you want to find out about him, you can find out about him. All of the details are readily available.”

Dubbing the series a “necessary re-examination of history”, Katherine continues to explain that The Long Shadow takes the opportunity to shine a spotlight on the victims in the case.

“Not just the 13 women that he murdered,” she adds, “but also the many victims who survived. And they’re brought into focus in this series, along with – well, The Long Shadow refers to the impact these crimes had on their family and friends. And on the police that were involved in the case, too, as it sent a lot of them to early graves.”

Watch the trailer for The Long Shadow below:

Katherine, who grew up in South Yorkshire, remembers the lengthy effect of the killings – despite the fact that she was just a baby when Sutcliffe was arrested.

“There was nobody in the area that wasn’t affected by it,” she says. “Even if it was just on a day-to-day basis. If a woman was 10 minutes late for work, it wasn’t, ‘Oh, she’s missed the bus.’ Everybody’s first thought was, ‘Is she the next victim?’

“I know somebody who, every Friday night, used to set his alarm and get up at 1am to go and meet his next-door neighbour off the bus so that he could walk her home. These murders changed people’s lives in a really precise way, and I really think that that has been really honoured in this piece.”

In the series, Katherine takes on the role of Emily Jackson, a 42-year-old woman who encountered Sutcliffe when she turned to sex work in a desperate bid to support her family during the recession.

“It was brutal,” says Katherine, describing Emily’s ordeal as an almost Shakespearean dilemma. 

“The fear and terror for Emily and her family wasn’t the threat of a serial killer, because that didn’t exist – she was Sutcliffe’s second confirmed victim,” the actor continues. 

“What existed for them was the fear and terror of having no money and being evicted. So she stumbled across a way to solve that, but it had terrifying consequences.”

Sadly, Emily – like so many of the women targeted by Sutcliffe – was attacked a second time after her death, having endured a character assassination as a result of the blatant sexism of the press and West Yorkshire police. 

The implication? That sex workers, or women who had been drinking, were somehow ‘fair game’. And, judging by recent headlines in the mainstream media about the woman they’ve labelled a “part-time prostitute”, it seems very little has changed.

It is a phenomenon is what is known as the ‘perfect victim,’ and it’s a damaging belief about how a victim should look and behave in order to be deemed worthy of our time and sympathy. That those women who have failed to adhere to society’s impossibly high standards were, in some way, ‘asking for it’. How, then, does Katherine hope her sensitive portrayal of Emily might go about changing the narrative?

“All you can do as an actor is play the truth of what’s written with humanity,’” she says. “And I’m acutely aware of the fact that we don’t want to hurt Emily’s family and friends any more than they already have been. 

“Emily’s a real human being, and I just… it is very easy to make assumptions and snap decisions about someone, but to actually walk in their shoes is very different. As an actor, that’s all I can try and do: just play it as authentically and with as much humanity as possible. And then, you know, the audience can make their own decision about how they feel about her.”

The Long Shadow, of course, is set in a time of massive upheaval: there’s an ongoing recession, there are fears about women’s safety, there is a loss of confidence in the police – all of which feels incredibly pertinent, both in the wake of the Reclaim These Streets vigils and our ongoing cost of living crisis.

“I think it’s probably impossible to not draw some comparisons to modern day,” says Katherine. “That’s probably what makes it relevant.”

While Katherine prefers not to select her film and TV projects based on genre (“script is king,” she says firmly), she knew that, if she did take on a true crime series, it would need to be handled as sensitively as possible.

“I do think that George Kay’s writing is second to none,” she says of the showrunner, with whom she previously worked on two seasons of Criminal:UK. 

“So when this job came my way, obviously – well, I’m from the area. And, while I was only one when they caught Peter Sutcliffe, this idea of The Long Shadow is true. It does exist. Everybody remembers it and remembers it vividly. So it was very important to me that this story was handled with delicacy and nuance, and that it felt very authentic.

“I knew that George would not just double down, but triple down on making sure that this series was as accurate as possible. And he did; the team researched for four years before they commenced production. There were four years of speaking to as many people as possible, first-hand, because while it’s obviously a well-documented period in time, they wanted to go back to the source. We’ve got families and friends of the victims and the survivors on board. It’s taken a lot of time to do that. But I knew George wouldn’t do any less. So I knew that we were in safe hands.”

Katherine adds: “George has a very understated way of writing that’s very insightful. It’s not showy. It’s the opposite – he’s always really searching for the truth. And, you know, in a world of clickbait and sensational headlines, there’s something more old-fashioned and authentic about the way George writes. And then [director] Lewis Arnold is the other half of that partnership that I really trusted, even though I’ve never worked with him before. His track record is exceptional. 

“He’s very visual, so the whole screen is speaking to you the whole time. You know, there are a lot of scenes where there’s no dialogue, and yet everything is said between characters.”

It makes for some extraordinary scenes – and emotionally intense ones, at that – but Katherine was, thankfully, able to walk away unscathed from the tragedy at the end of the shoot.

“I think it’s just the way I’m built,” she says, noting that she has played many tragic roles in her time as an actor. “I work very hard on set, you know, and I really dig and dig and dig until the final take. And then I can absolutely let it go. Because I think, ‘Well, I couldn’t have done any more than that.’

“I guess I kind of carry it around with me more beforehand in the research,” she adds, noting that she read several books in preparation for the role: Emily Jackson’s oldest living son, Neil, has worked alongside criminologist Jane Carter Woodrow on a book called After Evil, which helped Katherine fill in in all the gaps about the family. And the cast were all handed copies of Michael Bilton’s Wicked Beyond Belief [an account of the hunt for Peter Sutcliffe, which became the biggest criminal manhunt in British history].

“That’s where the work is to me,” she says. “So, afterwards, I can walk away from it. I know not everybody can, but that’s my default mechanism, I guess. And, when you meet Neil, you realise he actually did live and breathe it and he’s still living and breathing the pain of that. It gives you a lot of gratitude for your own blessings. I don’t know how you would ever get over that. And my admiration for him and the other victims is unsurpassed.”

To work on The Long Shadow, Katherine took time out from another ITV series – Mr Bates vs The Post Office, which is all about the post office workers falsely accused of fraud due to faulty software.

“I play Angela van den Bogerd, who was a central figure in the post office when the Horizon scandal happened,” she explains. “And I’m also filming something at the moment called Protection, with the same company behind The Long Shadow, and that’s all about witness protection.”

What Katherine is perhaps most excited about, however, is the launch of her own production company, Make Me Films, which she has set up with the writer Tony Pitts.

“We’re making our first feature film in the spring called Classic, which is all about a classic car show,” she says, “and we’ve also got a comedy in development, as well as some podcasts… it’s nice being involved in a project right from the very seedling of it all. That’s really satisfying – and I love bringing people together. 

“I’ve spent 20 years working with great actors, as well as great people behind the scenes, and sometimes these actors haven’t had the opportunity to show that they can do something else. I mean, there are some actors who I’ve worked with that are so funny, but have never been given a comedic role. So I’m really enjoying bringing lots of brilliant creatives and artists together.”

It seems, then, as if Katherine Kelly will continue to cast a long shadow of her own – but for all the right reasons. Watch this space.

The Long Shadow will air via ITV1 at 9pm on Monday 25 September 2023, with all seven hour-long episodes also landing on ITVX.

Images: ITV; Netflix