Dark deeds in East End make Whitechapel a perfect winter watch

There's nothing better than watching a gruesome crime drama on a cold winter's night. Especially if it delves into cases of the past to solve similar, modern ones. Cue Whitechapel.

The first episode of the third series doesn't waste any time getting to the nitty gritty. Setting the scene: A tailor's workshop. Young girl is sent out into the night to fetch food. A few dark alleyways, an abrupt exchange of words in the bagel shop after she queue jumps, and she is seen being followed.

On her return to the shop all is not as it should be. She can't get in. A looming figure appears from the shadows. Not the 'stalker' but a police officer who breaks into the building where four dead bodies and oodles of blood are discovered. Only problem is, the site was locked with no forced entry, so whodunnit?

Jumpy flashes of a man crawling fly-like on a ceiling and snippets of old newspaper cuttings featuring murder cases, all add to the sinister chills of the scenes.

Meanwhile our favourite detectives, the rather lovely, sight-for-sore-eyes DCI Joseph Chandler (Rupert Penry-Jones) and DS Ray Miles (Phil Davies) are enjoying a wedding reception down the local. They discuss hiring Edward Buchan (Stephen Pemberton) as their historical researcher.

He's slightly obsessed with murders of old, having already given his expertise to previous cases harking back to Jack the Ripper and the Krays.

And so the intrepid trio begin their quest for answers. Starting with questioning the young girl, who is a bit of a snooty so-and-so. All she says is that they made suits for businessmen. Helpful. She isn't giving anything away.

In the mortuary the four victims are prodded and poked with plenty of graphic descriptions of how they were killed. The great thing about this drama is it doesn't lose sight of its connection to the past with a touch of humour. "Autopsies were held in the pub," says the pathologist while brandishing a large metal surgical instrument.

Next up is Buchan who sees a connection to the Ratcliff Highways Murders, 200 years ago. Another copy-cat killer. Has the East End got any original murderers? Buchan can't give them any inspiration on how to track down the killer as the case two centuries ago was unsolved. But he does find links to potential suspects.

They quiz a gang leader who was jailed after the dead tailor, Ben Salter, testified against him in court. The taxi driver half-brother of Salter with his eerie laugh, limp and dislike of light, who is promptly locked up in a cell.

The characters in Whitechapel are usually only seen in a professional light. So it is touching when we catch glimpses of Chandler's OCD and how it affects his life and his concern for Miles on discovering his colleague's wife is ill.

It's not as gruesome as previous episodes and is quite fast-paced making it easy to get confused with who's who and what's what. It's also a little far-fetched as the prisoner escapes from his locked cell. How so?

But you've got to watch it next week, because if you're anything like me you'll be desperate to find out who did it.