In My Protection Ripper Street

This programme contains some violent scenes and scenes which some viewers may find upsetting.

All you young soldiers, next week, we shall have cavalry.

Horses which will run and cannon which will fire!

We at the Manby Emporium, we never shall rest

to bring you children joy.

HE COUGHS

Nice and tight now.

They will not deny us their patent this time.

Oh, no, not for you, my beauty.

Let's see how this one does, eh?

HE CHUCKLES

You'll see.

Come on, out me way. Go on, go on.

Wish me luck, boy.

Toymaker. Found this morning in an alley off the High Road.

Dead man in Whitechapel - the world chokes on its breakfast.

It is our work, Captain.

It is yours, Reid. Me, I have other matters to attend to.

Hanging off a tart's tit?

Don't knock it till you've tried it, Sergeant.

Reid, I'm serious, I'm not...

Reid, what is this?

A 63-year-old man.

Series of wounds and fractures to the skull and jaw.

No. I mean this.

This is your new dead room.

Now, look here.

Curved indentations to the cheek and to the forehead.

Belt buckle.

Belt buckl-...

You see, now this is why I send for you.

What do you mean "mine"?

These are to the specification you described, is it not?

Now would you look here. Jaw flattened and the skull stoved in.

Hot water, too.

Your description was very precise.

It may well have been, Reid, but I was talking about

the John Hopkins in Baltimore, not a cop shop in East London.

Should we not aspire so high, you and I?

The mortis is set in. You'll have to wait to get in there.

This, though...

-Drake, a measuring tape.

-Ah, drawer, top.

He has a name, this man. It's Manby.

And he has served the good children of this borough

a sight longer than you have whored through it.

Thank you, nurse.

-It's a small boot.

-How small?

-Small.

-Mr Reid, sir. The Vigilance Committee marches on us.

Reid, now, this room, I'm flattered,

but I have made no call to be deputised.

You would sooner return to your...

in-growing toenails and hawking snake oil?

Toenails and snake oil mean bread and whisky.

And how exactly do you intend to compensate for monies

left unearned, whilst I lead you from ignorance here?

Reid.

ANGRY COMMOTION

What's this, George Lusk? Finally decided on applying for uniform?

If matters weren't so grave, I'd be inclined to enjoy your comedy.

No, Inspector.

The men of Whitechapel do your job for you once more.

CROWD SHOUTS AGREEMENT

Thomas Gower. The lad what robbed and killed our toy seller.

CROWD JEERS

The Emergency Patrols were disbanded three month ago.

You vigilantes were stood down.

On whose say?

It's not for you to tell us

when we may organise, in defence of our community.

Better still, you thank us -

and consider yourself fortunate we bring a culprit across to ya.

I consider myself nothing of the kind when it comes to your presence

in this world, Lusk.

Now, this boy has done what you say, he will feel my outrage.

But I will not simply take YOUR word for it. Not you, Lusk.

Your own offences are as bad as the felons you hunt.

I don't ask you to.

These were found on the boy.

It's got its maker's mark on it.

And I have five witnesses saw him

leave the alleyway not two minutes before old Manby was come upon.

CROWD JEER

Names. Sworn statements.

That boy is to feel punishment.

He does not and we will string up every street Arab in the quarter

from the gaslights of the High Road!

CROWD JEERS

Get up!

Look at me, boy.

There's an army out there ready to roast you on their spit.

Look at him!

You see how a story emerges here that fits you for this crime?

I would be wary of this silence.

It may oblige me to send you to trial.

BOY SPITS

BOY CRIES OUT

DOOR SLAMS

Quiet in court.

The jury return with their verdict.

Boy's lawyer. Churches with my wife.

All rise!

How do you find the boy?

Guilty, your honour.

CHEERING FROM THE GALLERY

-WOMAN:

-That'll teach ya!

My thanks to our jury for the speedy delivery

of sound verdict.

However, given the boy's barely comprehensible

and continued silence,

does counsel wish to speak for him

before I pass sentence on his guilt?

My Lord, I do.

This is a child stood here.

I would hope that you might recognise that as an opportunity

to assert the sanctity of that childhood and to be merciful.

This boy and the others like him

who we would blame for the violence on our streets,

it is not they who we should punish,

but the Fagins who stand behind them, directing that violence.

These innocents, we should protect.

You would urge an attempt at reformation?

I would.

Reformation be damned, Mr Eagles.

This child, we shall make an example of him.

No, my Lord, please!

He is 14 years old and admits nothing of this crime.

-VOICES FROM THE GALLERY:

-Yeah!

Thomas Gower.

Three days hence, you will be taken to the gallows at Newgate,

where Mr Berry will deliver you

from this life and into the next.

CHEERING FROM THE GALLERY

Mrs Manby.

Inspector. I would thank you for your diligence and speed.

You and Mr Lusk, here.

You serve my husband and his memory well.

Inspector?

The boy is of tender years. The sentence...

..immoderate or apt?

My duty was to fetch the lad here.

All else is for greater men than I to settle.

Shame! Shame on you! You fetch a child to his murder,

wash your hands of him and call your duty served?

-Shame on you! Shame!

-Get out of here, Miss.

SHE SHOUTS IN YIDDISH

Justice may not make friends, Reid.

I will not be silent! I will not!

Is the Jewess on your ticket, is she?

I know her not, though she is of my mind.

Then shall I ask my Sergeant to return her,

so I may remind you both of the facts here?

That this condemned boy was brought to you beaten blue by his captor?

No, Mr Eagles. That the victim's belongings were about him,

-that five men saw him depart the scene at some speed soon after...

-Though none saw the act...

..that this boy is no stranger to violence.

And that finally, when presented with the opportunity,

he even now refuses to deny it.

Lusk and his hamheads have served an entire hymnal of guilt

and the world has sung from it.

Mr Reid, you are no stranger to the horrors of our city.

But have they poisoned your heart

so completely that you truly believe this boy - this boy alone -

capable of the savagery brought down on that man?

It's finding this boy's master that will bring true peace

to our streets, Inspector.

I will do what I can still, but Thomas Gower will hang.

Would you look me in the eye and say you rest easy with that?

Get out of here. Get out of here!

These young that riot here, Lusk will use their violence

to justify his place on our streets.

And respect for badge and uniform suffer further, sir.

Oi!

Oi!

BOYS SHOUT

BOYS LAUGH

Oi!

Not so fast now, are ya? Eh?

Wait. This name on your knuckles, what does that stand for?

Do you know Thomas Gower?

Tom Gower? Of course I do and he'll never squeal on us, neither!

Aargh!

BOYS LAUGH

Vicious little runt!

What do you make of those markings? What is that?

A brotherhood? A gang?

Been gangs on these streets as long as there's been horse muck on them.

They're not near as young and savage as these.

Then their hands must be guided by another.

I would not tell him so, but there is something in Mr Eagles'

position I might lean toward.

We are to choke this boy now. But before we do,

I would have a broader picture painted as to what and why.

Find Captain Jackson. Bring him back to the dead room. Tell him...

Tell him I would have a more intimate study of our fellow, Manby.

KNOCKING ON DOOR

Good evening to you.

God sends his confections for the poor boys what's incarcerated here.

This way, sir.

Now, you tell me should any other come visit my boy.

I will, sir.

All right, Tom.

You must be strong in your silence, lad.

TOM CRIES

Rose, what...

Sergeant Drake bid me wake you.

I've been looking for you all night.

I should have thought to search the gutters. Where you been?

I don't know.

Get up!

We cannot open it.

Thoughts?

Cigarettes? Vanity case?

Murdered for that and tuppence ha'penny. No.

We're getting inside there any time soon?

We must be thorough, I suppose.

Drink this.

What's in that, Reid?

Various. Magnesia for the heartburn.

Rum. Sugar syrup. Cocaine.

Well, thank you.

I'd have you happy in your workplace.

JACKSON YELLS

-You have a bite-block, Reid?

-I do. I do.

Ratcheted.

Well, look at you.

Huh.

What? What is it?

Take a look for yourself.

His tongue is cut out!

There's more in there than that, Reid.

Dental restorations.

Gold dental restorations.

We're told the boy's motive was theft, are we not?

He cuts the man's tongue out, yet disdains a year's worth

of picked pockets sat right in his face.

This was no smash and grab.

There is a wider purpose here.

Make good what you have done.

Whatever you say, Reid.

This matter of being dead - tell me it ain't all bad.

Always been a Manby on this street?

My day, it was her old man.

He didn't want the shop front changed.

She kept her name, husband took hers.

Took both daughter and business for his own.

What do you recall of the father?

Only that he'd see me and my kind off, if we loitered too near.

A version of Gower's luck was yours, too?

Well, his ill manner and ignorance, certainly.

Drew the line at murder, however.

Perhaps the recruiting sergeants were the saving of you, Bennett.

Perhaps they were, sir.

KNOCKING ON DOOR

Early in the day to be disturbing so recent a widow, Inspector.

Early in the day to have stopped with her, Lusk.

Should those sewer rats seek reprisal,

the widow knows she cannot rely on you for protection.

She can look to us for questions, however, and provide answers.

Your part in this matter is played, yet still you investigate?

What questions would those be, Mr Reid?

Excuse us, Ma'am.

As to what connected your husband with this child.

Her loved husband's murder connected them, Reid!

And that boy is under key and condemned for it.

Mrs Manby, do you know what these are?

They are patent applications.

Such matters are costly.

They are four pounds for every filing and there are many.

I'm not sure your profits, given the volume,

would have stretched sufficiently.

Where do you suppose he found the wherewithal?

He wouldn't take from my daddy's till. Not never.

Then, do you see?

I must ask myself from whom he took the loan of it.

If he'd only speak, that boy could tell us, I'm sure.

Have you lost the last of your Scotched brains?

No.

I forensicate myself.

May a woman ask why?

If she swears to serenity.

You wait all morning to tell me that!

Why would you do that?

Because I knew how you'd react.

I told you when we sailed. I begged it of you.

Put it in the ocean.

How, now, would you prefer me to react?

Maybe as if the world has not, in fact, just ended.

An interested party gets their hands on that ring,

the end of the world's exactly what we are looking at, you and I.

Our life here? Finished.

All right, boys, let's see how we're doing. Jack?

Edmund. You are alive.

You are here so often these days, I have forgot how you look.

Then you come to remind yourself, do you?

Wanted a word with Mr Eagles.

Two minutes, Mr Reid.

-I should...

-Emily.

These, er, places, will ever make me think of you.

The bells clanging, the faithful falling to their knees.

And you and I at home,

careless of God, abed in our sweat.

I would have those Sundays back.

Well, we live in different times now.

Once I had no need of church.

But now - coming here, speaking with Mr Eagles - I see that I do.

So do you, Edmund, if you'd only accept that she is dead.

What, Emily? What have you spoken to him of?

Mr Reid. Should I find you a ladle?

No!

No, Eagles. Not today.

I've a theory I would put to you -

how your boy might recover his voice.

I believe that tongue was taken as proof of the death itself.

It was Manby himself who was the aim of the assault,

not what was on his person.

We have enjoyed welcoming Mrs Reid at worship

and hope that the comfort she has found there

might be extended to yourself.

-Stay away from my wife, Eagles.

-I simply ...

Take as fact that God's law holds no fear for me.

-WEEPING WOMAN:

-Oh, my God.

They say it is a painless process.

Now, the executioner, Mr Berry, is a very clever man.

It takes a person's weight to establish

what length of rope they require.

Too long, they fall too far too fast

and the head comes clean off.

Too short and the neck is strangled, instead of dislocated.

-CHAPLAIN:

-I say more than they...

There's not much of you, is there?

Wouldn't have thought you'd need much more than...ten foot.

Now, if it was you that ended that old man's life, I cannot say.

But this brotherhood you run with...

..you make a practice of cutting

men's tongues from their throats, do you?

What, boy?

It wasn't what he had on him, was it?

Manby himself was the target.

You must tell us who made him so.

Two days, Thomas.

I will stay beside you every hour until.

But this end awaits you...

unless you talk to us.

I have you.

What ring is it that you've lost?

Was it the one you wear about your neck?

I weren't eavesdropping. Promise. The whole house heard her.

Is it very valuable to you?

It belonged to a man that I knew.

A good friend. A, er...

..brother.

Dead now.

Mr Eagles!

Thomas?

Shh! It ain't safe here.

What do you mean?

Please. It ain't.

If you want me to tell you what I know,

you get that bluebottle and fetch me out of here.

You understand?

-I go to send word.

-Mr Eagles, will I go to hell for this?

Your bravery will save you and all others who serve this man.

I will be back. And soon.

Ready them.

Mr Reid, sir!

From Mr Eagles, sir.

Have a Maria readied and despatched for Newgate.

Hobbs, you travel with them. You tell no-one, you keep him hid.

BOYS CHANT

Whoa!

HORSES WHINNY

The way's... The way's barricaded.

You, man! Stop!

Wait there, Thomas.

No, Thomas. You're to wait inside.

Thomas Gower!

The love we bear you. Does that not mean nothing to you?

Squeal, would ya?

Me and your brothers?

You know we cannot let you live now, Tom.

Hey?

You shall not take him.

You shall not!

Who is this man that stops me?

My name is Patrick Eagles.

You pass through me first.

You, run.

Mr Eagles, no!

Run. Thomas, run!

I'd know your name, sir,

before I crack your skull.

Now, Thomas. Go!

Go on.

I said I'd know your name.

Or do you give it only to the farm animals you lie with?

BOYS CHANT AND JEER

EAGLES GROANS

Inspector! Inspector!

Inspector Reid!

The streets sing with rumours of your folly.

Can it be true you've lost him?

Remember, Reid. Boys from gaslights.

Are you here on this earth to bring me to murder?

You keep the peace!

See how he loses command of the streets and now of himself?

Get your hands off me!

These children run riot over him.

The lawyer.

Signs signature - belt buckle.

Signs less so.

It's a ring.

-DRAKE:

-Sir.

Look at me, Constable.

It is a fool who joins a fight he cannot win.

I would far rather have you here, alive talking to me, than otherwise.

Have you seen this man before?

Some kind of Scouser, I think.

Scouse!?

And he had these tattoos, Sir, all about his hands.

You know, picture cards. Like the youth has and a hundred more.

Who is this that brings his way of life to my streets? A usurer?

Who kills for monies left unpaid, then gulls and fits

young boys for his own violence.

And now hunts one such, before he'd tell us what he knows.

Then we must hunt Thomas Gower also, but faster and smarter.

Hobbs, you go to records.

We need to find somewhere that he might consider safe, as home.

You search every record and birth certificate of every family

-that might match his name.

-Yes, sir.

Sergeant, get yourself to Newgate.

My guess is that ship's sprung a leak.

And I think I know where.

He's your brother.

His world - it starts and ends in the same place as yours does.

And yet you still can't find him.

Now...

..you get back out there,

and you return only should you have something of value to report.

Gower. Thomas. Years 1872 to '78.

You, there, I want a word with you!

Who is he? Who'd you tell?

Just a man. Like you.

Come to me with threats and violence.

-Name!

-He never gave it.

Honest. See me for the coward I am.

I'd tell you if I knew.

I don't know why you all care so much about one boy.

One little Christ-killer.

What d'you call him?

Saw his little prick when we scrubbed him. He's cut.

It's a Jewboy you fight for.

-Well?

-Nothing, sir.

Keep looking.

Throw out the Gentiles.

Jewish?

Mr Reid, sir.

I have him!

The orphanage off Castlemaine.

I have not seen him

since the day you delivered him to the hangman.

I don't know why you believe he would return.

Because he owes his name to you.

An English name.

It was an English world in which he hoped to survive.

He had none he was born with?

He might have.

The cruelty men found him, trapping rats for food in a railway yard.

He was eight and knew no parent to tell him it.

And you became that parent...

..that person to whom he may now turn.

Miss Goren, you will get word to me

should he come to you for refuge, will you not?

I will, Inspector.

Then I thank you.

She lies. Or she is soon to.

We wait.

No girls. Are you sure?

If there was, I would have enjoyed one. I checked.

I did not.

Listen to me!

That ring was on his fist

when he beat a man to death with it only last night.

He's an evil one.

You be wary.

You forget who we are? What we have done?

Get out! Get out! Don't come back here, till you have him!

Who is this that intrudes here?

Woman, how do you know where to find me?

I know many things.

How to make a man rich, for example.

You would serve me well.

-Serve you?

-Indeed.

You make me equity partner in this here enterprise of yours,

you will feel our benefit.

You're touched or you're drunk...

..or you're both.

No, sir, I'm neither.

Imagine...

I bring my girls into your service.

Their, erm, encouragements,

inflame men to greater exploits at your tables.

Any losses you suffer will be recouped by way of the pointed

lust your briefly-enriched patrons exert upon the girls

who've aroused them so.

You are indeed...

..a woman.

And you're indeed a man.

Will you show me your tables?

Place a bet?

Perhaps we may rehearse our intentions a little.

The woman! Stop her! Stop her!

No, stop!

Steal from me, would you?

Let me think of what I shall take from you in return.

This pretty nose, perhaps?

GUNSHOT

-Drop that.

-Drop her.

That ring is ours and she's mine.

This I give to you.

That's not enough. Not near.

Well, I guess we're at a pass, you and me.

We are.

Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait!

I have more to trade. I have, erm, information.

Valuable information about...

..Thomas Gower.

See, Sergeant, she goes to him.

Thomas, this will always be your home, but we must find an answer...

The answer may have found you.

You will not take him ...

I can keep him safe, Miss Goren. The street cannot.

-How is he called, this Scouse you hide from?

-Please...

-Carmichael.

..don't be rough with him, he's only a boy!

And you collect his debt for him?

-Debt, my arse.

-Then what, Thomas? What work does he set you to?

WHISTLING

It's him!

CHILDREN CHANT

Upstairs.

THEY CHANT

Keep him hid.

Come now. Come.

Inspector!

A parlay, sir.

You have nowhere to go!

What is your aim here?

To have my boy returned where he belong

and then we can all go home, safe and warm.

If I choose to deny you this?

Do you have children, Inspector?

But if you do not, I pity you.

The love they bear you. You see this youth here?

No idea what that youth will do for me, do ya?

Own a grown man's savagery, for example.

I tell him to tear this place apart and everybody -

young and old - inside and they'll do it and they'll thank me.

Now, what manner of atrocity do you wish to be served here?

Will you give him up or no?

I will not.

His word will send you to the rope.

He is my prisoner and in my protection.

Then, at the time of my choosing, Inspector...

..we will end you all this night!

There will be nothing left to indicate who or what

took place here.

It will be my Passover!

And it will be on your head.

These walls and doors are sturdy enough. We are secure.

They are still not many, cannot stay outside for ever. All will be well.

Did you hear what the Inspector said? All will be well.

Perhaps if we ask him nicely, he may put you to your beds.

What do you think?

Which one is yours?

Head up, lad.

No good ever came from moping.

This one, Mr Lusk.

Thomas Gower.

You. To what end do you bother me?

I bring you news.

Which, if acted on, will bring you all you seek.

These children? Do you know where they have come from?

Not all, no.

If a girl, say, was brought to you and had perhaps lost

the memory of her home and her name, would you take her in?

I would, yes.

And I would hope that, in time,

her name, her memory, would return to her.

(Children...)

Men say some are born evil, others blameless.

The truth, in my experience, is simpler. They are mirrors -

as evil, or as innocent as the world that gives life to them.

And this world - I need not to tell you this, sir - this world is a wicked one.

Then why, why do you take on this burden of care?

I am a secular woman, Inspector.

I have seen too much of the truth of things to be otherwise.

But this of my faith I hold onto -

"Save but one life and you save the world entire."

What does this stand for, anyway?

I got some of me own, you know.

Came by it in Egypt.

In the army?

Holy man painted it - made offerings and prayers for me,

in his tent, in the desert.

Said it would let me sleep.

What d'you need 'em for?

Things I kept seeing.

Things I didn't want to see.

Fair dos, then. Your go.

Pictures mean different things.

King's a mugging,

Knave's a house-break.

No Queens?

Queen's a rape.

And Manby? Which is he?

We ain't supposed to take none their belongings.

Save for their tongues.

Save that.

He was ruining her. His inventions and his patent applications.

Had his hands in her Daddy's till, after all.

It wasn't a debt you were collecting, was it?

Carmichael is paid to have men killed...correct?

And he instructs you in the killing of them.

Their tongue cut clean to prove it.

-The wife paid.

-All I knew, she wanted him gone.

CRASHING

-Out of your beds! Out of your beds!

-Get in the corner!

BANGING

ORPHANS SCREAM

Down. Down.

-Sergeant.

-Oi!

At them!

Get at them!

SCREAMING

Inspector!

How about it?

Me and you?

SCREAMING

Woman, you are dead!

Oi, Liverpool!

Stand aside for the Vigilance Men.

Thomas Gower?!

Where are you, boy?

It's time you came home, lad.

GUNSHOT

SCREAMING AND CRYING

Grab 'em. Quick!

I'll take that boy, now...

as recompense for my actions here.

And I will tell you what I told this man...

..that he is my prisoner and in my protection.

You think yourself above the law, you'd best start acting as such.

Come on, out!

Now, whatever has passed here, whatever we say of you,

that you were Carmichael's creature in all of this. We cannot be certain the courts will agree.

You get him away. Far away.

Go with him, Thomas.

Thank you, sir, he'll make a great little soldier.

His name's Sergeant Randall and you do as he says.

Now, I've told him you are 18.

The ship leaves Gravesend in the morning.

You're saving me?

No. I do no such thing.

Where you go to, all you've yet known will seem no more

than a Sunday fair.

Here.

In you get, lad.

Look sharp.

Carmichael's ring.

So I see.

And what perplexes me...

is that two years previous, there was a wire

from your Pinkerton brothers in Chicago.

The name sent to the constabularies of the known world -

"Search for a man, alive or dead,"

and if you look here...

engraved in the inner is the very same name...

..Matthew Judge.

Tell me,

did you chance upon that name during your time with the Pinkertons?

No.

No, Reid. I can't really say that I have.

-I thought it worth asking.

-Always worth that.

A sergeant's rate. Computed daily.

What I shall pay you for your services. Does it wash?

Do not dicker with me, Captain. You are of great service to me.

You have saved souls this past night.

But...do not think my curiosity, as to how you knew I needed such,

is easily put to bed.

Well, then, it washes.

Did you return that wire?

-From the Pinks.

-Oh, I did. I did.

Told them the ring was recovered from a murderous kidsman.

And that if their Matthew Judge was anything, he was dead.

WOMAN SCREAMING HYSTERICALLY

You! I will haunt you and drag you to hell with me!

Go home, Sergeant.

Thank you, sir.

WHISPERED PRAYER

You pray for Mr Eagles.

It is a waste... A terrible waste.

It is not.

A child breathes that would not have.

Had Mr Eagles lived, many more would have come to thank him.

"Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire."

It is from the Talmud, I believe.

Emily, I know what you told Mr Eagles. You had no business doing so.

What am I to do, Edmund?

I mourn her.

And because you will not, I must do so alone.

Mr Eagles was kind to me.

He allowed me to speak of her.

To imagine her in heaven.

To imagine a life... beyond this pain.

-Would you deny me that?

-I would take your pain.

I would amplify it a hundredfold and bear it for you every day of what remains of my life.

But...I cannot do what you ask.

You listen to me. You stay with me.

You stay alive. Stay alive.

You live.

You stay with me.

Please.

I will do anything.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd