Photo Credit: BBC
To the fandom of The Strain, Rupert Penry-Jones is known as the bad-ass dhampir Mr. Quinlan who can take out a half dozen pesty feelers in 20 seconds or less and still turn around to give Professor Setrakian a courteous welcome without blinking an eye. But what the fandom may not know is that while Penry-Jones may not be too familiar in the U.S., he’s a mega-star in the UK. Having starred in several BBC series over the past decade, Rupert has become a staple on the small screen with one of his most prominent roles as DI (Detective Inspector) Joe Chandler on BBC’s Whitechapel.
If you’ve only seen Rupert as Mr. Quinlan on The Strain, watching him as DI Chandler is pretty comical. Very reminiscent to Tony Shalhoub’s character on USA’s Monk but with a suave and sophisticated aura about him, DI Chandler is a brilliant detective but one with mild to moderate OCD which has interfered with his job on numerous occasions. Just like his portrayal as Quinlan, Rupert is magnificent as Chandler, and just from the mere fact that he can pull off impeccable performances of 2 wildly divergent characters is a testament of the immense talent of the actor.
If you’re a fan of Rupert’s and are interested in checking out Whitechapel (and you should!), you may be in luck. In a press release on Thursday, KCET, the nation’s largest independent public television station, announced the return of the most famous unsolved murder case in history with the premiere of the critically acclaimed U.K. series Whitechapel, airing exclusively on KCET in Southern California beginning September 27 at 9 p.m. PT. For those not living in the area, the detective series will also be streaming at KCET.org concurrent to the broadcast featuring additional related content including a look at famous murder mysteries in Southern California. The series, acquired from BBC Worldwide TV in the U.K., originally aired on ITV1 in February of 2009 and ran for 4 seasons.
“Set in 2008 against the hugely atmospheric background of Whitechapel, London, a modern police force finds itself fighting an old adversary upon discovering a series of bloody, tragic and impossible crimes that suggest someone is carrying out copycat Jack the Ripper murders. Ambitious DI Joseph Chandler (Rupert Penry-Jones, “The Strain”) is assigned an open-and-shut case, the killing of a woman in the East End of London. But the investigation quickly runs out of suspects until Edward Buchan (Steve Pemberton, “Inspector Lewis” and “Happy Valley”) a renowned “Ripperologist,” draws the police’s attention to the similarities between the Jack the Ripper killings in 1888 and the modern-day murder. With the help of the cynical DS Miles (Phil Davis, “Mr. Holmes”), the race begins to catch the copycat killer before he strikes again.”
To learn more, please visit kcet.org/shows/whitechapel. Join the conversation on social media using #whitechapel and #murdermystery, and be sure to check out the below promo video.
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