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Overtuigend, complex, aangrijpend en verontrustend, The Red Riding Trilogy is een adembenemende neo-noir epos gebaseerd op weerzinwekkende en waargebeurde feiten. Het scenario is geschreven door Tony Grisoni (FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS, TIDELAND) aan de hand van David Peace"s grimmige crime-thrillers. The Red Riding Trilogy vertelt de controversiële verhalen rondom de jacht op een van de meest wrede seriemoordenaars ooit: de Yorkshire Ripper.

Na een mislukt avontuur in Londen keert de cynische journalist Eddie Dunford terug naar zijn geboorteplaats in Yorkshire waar hij op pad wordt gestuurd om verslag te geven over de vermissing van een 6-jarig meisje. Maar nadat haar bizar verminkte lichaam is ontdekt, komt hij terecht in een geweldadige en verrotte nachtmerrie gedomineerd door corruptie. De identiteit van de moordenaar blijft een mysterie. Generaties lang is men in de ban van de gruwelijke zoektocht die volgt en uiteindelijk eindigt in een schokkende ontknoping.

Red Riding is a television adaptation of English author David Peace"s Red Riding Quartet. Published between 1999 and 2002, the quartet comprises the novels Nineteen Seventy-Four (1999), Nineteen Seventy-Seven (2000), Nineteen Eighty (2001) and Nineteen Eighty-Three (2002). Set against a backdrop of *** murders, including the Yorkshire Ripper case, they deal with multi-layered corruption and feature several recurring characters across the four books. Though real crimes are featured the scripts are fictionalised and dramatised versions of events rather than contemporary factual accounts.

The first episode of the trilogy features Sean Bean and Andrew Garfield. It focuses on a series of the unsolved murders of young girls. It is set in the year of the title. The story follows Eddie Dunford (Garfield), a young reporter from the Yorkshire Post as he tries to find information on the missing (presumed dead) girls.
John Dawson (Bean), a local businessman, has bribed members of the West Yorkshire Constabulary and councillors so that he can purchase local land and gain permission for a mall he has planned?this is done by burning down a Roma camp previously existing in the area. One of the murdered girls is found on his land, having been tortured, raped, and strangled, with swan wings stitched to her back.

Young, cocky and naive, Dunford conducts his investigation up to a dangerous stage. Through his friend Barry Gannon (Anthony Flanagan), he meets an elusive male prostitute, BJ (Robert Sheehan) who has gathered significant information about local authority figures. Gannon"s recent fear for his own personal security seems to be justified when he ends up dying in what appears to be a freak accident. Dunford later becomes a lover to the mother of one of the missing girls, Paula Garland (Rebecca Hall). It transpires that she has a secret sexual relationship with Dawson as well. Dunford ignores threats from police (orchestrated by Dawson) to keep away from visiting Paula and from trying to extract evidence from Dawson"s institutionalized wife. However, he continues his investigation until he is ultimately arrested by the police, after storming into a private party at Dawson"s house, and Paula is abducted and murdered.
After a severe beating and torture by two police officers, Tommy Douglas (Tony Mooney) and Bob Craven (Sean Harris), Dunford is given a gun and abandoned in a desolate area. He seeks out Dawson, finds him at the Karachi club and challenges him about the murders. Dawson makes a confession to having "a private weakness", indicating that he was connected to the girls" murders. Dunford shoots him repeatedly then flees by car. He then deliberately drives into a head-on collision with two police cars that were pursuing him; a vision of Paula sits by his side right up to his death.

A bag full of documented evidence of police corruption, left by Dunford to a seemingly trustworthy officer before his death, is brought by the latter to Detective Superint