The Long Shadow

Wilma McCann's four young children wake up to find their mother missing. After her body is found not far from her house, DCS Dennis Hoban takes charge of the investigation. Conscious that young women, of what the police would term ‘loose morals', do not often inspire public sympathy, Hoban directs media attention onto her role as a mother, and on her children who have been taken into care. 

Meanwhile, across the city: Emily and Sydney Jackson's marriage is faltering in the face of financial hardship. With Christmas looming, Emily is desperate to scrape enough income to see them through to New Year. She is upset and disturbed when a man mistakes her for a sex worker in a pub, but as their financial situation deteriorates, she sees no other way to keep the family afloat. As Hoban continues to be frustrated in his efforts to find Wilma's murderer, Emily tentatively begins sex work on Spencer Place. An arrest is made and we end the episode with Emily standing on Spencer Place, getting into an unknown car that drives into the darkness.

The Jackson family receives the devastating news that Emily has been murdered. Neil accompanies his father to the mortuary, where he is faced with the terrible duty of identifying his mother. Sydney breaks down under questioning by Dennis Hoban and DCS Jim Hobson, realising that he too is now a suspect. He admits he knew what his wife was doing and is soon exonerated. Time passes and across the city, a young woman called Marcella Claxton is attacked and left for dead. She describes her attacker in detail, but her testimony is ultimately disregarded. At Millgarth Police Station – the centre of the investigation – various men are interviewed in relation to Emily's murder, having been seen driving through the red-light district. The investigation expands, but Hoban continues to be thwarted. When a third body is found – that of Irene Richardson – it dawns on the detectives that there might be a multiple murderer at large. Over a year in and bereft of serious leads, Dennis Hoban finds himself side-lined from the investigation.

The investigation spreads to Bradford with the murder of another young woman. A female police officer is tasked with dangerous undercover work, while for the real sex workers, that danger is ever present.

When another woman survives an attack, detectives hope that they are in with a chance of finding their man as a driver in Leeds emerges as prime suspect.

The police revisit historic attacks in the hope of identifying further victims, and George Oldfield is fired up by the arrival of a letter from the killer.

West Yorkshire Police launch a huge public appeal in the hope of rooting out the killer as some detectives begin to voice concerns about the investigation.

After a chance arrest, the killer is finally caught and the failures of the investigation are laid bare in the wake of the trial.