The period crime drama was axed by BBC One after two series last December, but Series 3 will now debut on Amazon Prime Instant Video.

The new episodes will then air on BBC One a few months later.

Series 3 begins filming in May and will continue to be co-produced in the US by BBC America.

Ben Stephenson, the BBC’s Controller of Drama Commissioning, commented: “This is an exceptional opportunity to bring back Ripper Street for a third series by working with the right partners. This deal gives fans another series of the show they love at excellent value to the licence fee payer, ensuring that the BBC can also commission an entirely new, yet to be announced drama series.”

Jason Ropell, Head of Amazon Instant Video International Content Acquisition added: “We’re delighted to have secured not only the highly popular first two seasons of Ripper Street for our Prime Instant Video customers, but we can also confirm today that we will making [Series 3], news that we know will delight the millions of fans of this brilliant British drama. Prime Instant Video offers our customers the largest subscription streaming service in the UK with over 15,000 popular movies and TV episodes, many of which are exclusive to the service, and we’re just getting started.”

Amazon Prime’s publicity team were unable to confirm to CultBox the exact number of episodes that have been commissioned, saying: “That’s not something we know at this time I’m afraid.”

The show’s producers posted a teasing tweet yesterday, hinting at an announcement about the future of the show.

Actor Jerome Flynn, who plays Sergeant Bennet Drake, revealed last year: “There’s these wonderful storylines which Richard [Warlow] and Toby [Finlay], the writers, have marked out, and it’s one of the most captivating characters I’ve played and also been part of in terms of the story…”

Are you looking forward to Series 3? Let us know below…