This week’s story centred on a band of telegraph boys moonlighting as gay prostitutes. When one is brutally murdered, Inspector Reid (Matthew Macfadyen) quickly uncovers the connection between one of the boys, David (Alfie Stewart), and a man called Solomon Quint (Scott Handy), an investment consultant for one of London’s biggest banks.

Moving between Reid and his men, the two lovestruck telegraph boys involved in the Quint’s blackmail, and Jackson’s (Adam Rothenberg) misjudged attempts to help his wife Susan (MyAnna Buring), the episode navigated its twisty plot with a confident hand, ultimately drawing each strand back to the theme of love, and all the complexities it ushers into our lives.

We saw David and his lover Vincent (Jassa Ahluwalia) driven to desperate means to start a new life together, while story-hungry newspaperman Fred Best (David Dawson) was revealed as a gay man so terrified of exposure he ultimately betrayed his own ethics.

Elsewhere, Susan, still reeling from her brush with idealistic feminist Raine, finally cut ties with Jackson after he tried to save her again. There was tragic weariness to Susan’s protests not to intervene in her affairs and, after his beating at Silas Duggan’s (Frank Harper) hands, Jackson got no sympathy from his wife. By the end of the episode, with Susan’s discovery that he had lost all their remaining money, their relationship was believably, heartbreakingly, in tatters.

Bolstering this excellent story was the dialogue, with writers Thomas Martin and Toby Finlay going to town on the fruity Victorian lingo. Did everyone in 1880s London talk like Alex DeLarge on MDMA? Probably not, but if Ripper Street isn’t a series invested in a totally realistic portrayal of Victorian London, it’s certainly one that embraces the larger-than-life spirit of Victorian fiction. Ultimately, it’s this rambunctious storytelling combined with the emotional truth of the characters that makes Ripper Street so watchable.

Thus, the scene where Reid visited Jane Cobden (Leanne Best) to profess his romantic feelings worked perfectly as a hopeful ending to this week’s tragic story.

Reid, a man reminded of human cruelty on a daily basis, found his courage by observing the bravery that love inspired in others. It’s a genuine treat watching a scene so well-earned and movingly performed and, while in other circumstances a line like “I have had enough of the darkness, if you would help me know the sun” might have had us scoffing, here it had us dabbing away the tears.

In an age of sombre naturalism, it’s charming to watch a TV series that embraces human spirit so earnestly. Don’t be fooled – Ripper Street might deal in thrills and spills, but it’s got a huge heart.

Aired at 9pm on Monday 25 November 2013 on BBC One.

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> Order Series 2 on DVD on Amazon.

Watch the Series 2 trailer…

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