‘Ripper Street” will live to see another season.
The BBC America drama, cancelled by the BBC after a two-season run in the UK, will plow ahead with a third season now that Amazon Studios has acquired the show’s UK subscription streaming rights.
Season 3 original episodes of “Ripper Street” will stream on Amazon in the UK, with repeats airing later on the BBC.
In the US, Season 3 of “Ripper Street” will air on BBC America.
“We were always battling for a third season, and we live to fight again,” series creator Richard Warlow told The Post on Wednesday. “I think [a third season] always looked possible, but there were so many different parties needing to negotiate through the process, and many times it looked like the whole thing was going to fall apart.
“What kept everyone going was the sort of constant voice of the fans, which kept growing and growing,” he said. “The various parties [negotiating] kind of looked at each other and said, ‘It’s getting more and more difficult not to have this happen.’ ”
The Victorian Era drama — starring Matthew Macfadyen, Jerome Flynn, Adam Rothenberg and MyAnna Buring — began its second-season run on BBC America last Saturday, Feb. 22.
The series is set in London’s East End in the gritty, crime-infested Whitechapel district, locale of the infamous “Jack the Ripper” murders. It’s centered around Whitechapel’s notoriously tough “H Division” police precinct, headed by Detective Inspector Edmund Reid (Macfadyen).
Season One opened in 1889, six months after the last “Jack the Ripper” murder in Whitechapel. Season 2 opens in 1890.
Warlow said filming on the third season, which will premiere in 2015, is set to begin May 12. “I have that date imprinted on my memory ,” he said, adding that the bulk of the new season’s eight episodes will be filmed in Dublin (as they were in Seasons 1 and 2).
“Ripper Street” will also spend two weeks shooting in the UK for Season 3, Warlow said — adding that all the show’s major stars will “absolutely” return for the third season. “I wrote Season One with a finish in mind, since I wasn’t sure how we’d go, then I wrote Season 2 to be open-ended,” he said.
The BBC cancelled “Ripper Street” last December when numbers dropped from the show’s inaugural season. “I think it’s one of those interesting little situations where the people who watch the show really love it . . . while a lot of people watch TV with sort of half-an-eye on other things,” Warlow said. “Our numbers dwindled but our core viewership remained constant — and our fans gave it their full attention.”