The Long Shadow writer George Kay has described his sorrow at the "lack of change" in the attitudes towards women from the police in the years since Peter Sutcliffe's horrific crimes.
The seven-part series, which is now available to watch in full on ITVX, tells the tale of the serial killer's string of murders during the late 1970s, which left 13 women dead and countless other lives wrecked by grief and trauma.
Kay has been praised for concentrating on the plight of his victims and has also been lauded for highlighting the misogyny that hampered West Yorkshire Police's investigation.
At the time, detectives attracted ire for describing the killer's victims who weren't prostitutes as "innocent", while also imposing curfews on women, a move that was seen as victim-blaming in many quarters.
Yet when asked about those dark days, the show's writer says things haven't changed as much as many would have hoped.
One episode of The Long Shadow depicts the "Reclaim The Night" protests that took place in Leeds in 1977, organised by the Women's Liberation Movement.
Kay was keen to draw comparisons between that event and the 2021 Sarah Everard vigil, in which the Metropolitan Police were accused of mistreating women as they paid their respects to the 33-year-old woman kidnapped and murdered by police officer Wayne Couzens.
"It felt like there were lots of reasons to revisit the story of Peter Sutcliffe," says Kay. "I was working on the show in 2021 when Sarah Everard was killed and while I was writing about the Reclaim The Night protests in 2022, at the same time on Clapham Common there were Reclaim The Streets protests going on for Sarah Everard.
"I decided to only include placards that were both in the Reclaim The Night protest and in the Sarah Everard protest in the script, to underline the lack of change."
