The cruellest BLOW

JILL HALFPENNY on playing a mother coping with unimaginable grief

THE LONG SHADOW
MONDAY, 9PM,
ITV1 DRAMA

Recounting the desperate five-year manhunt for serial killer Peter Sutcliffe, ITVI's factual drama The Long Shadow moves the focus to tell the stories of his victims and their families.

This week's fifth episode sees actor Jill Halfpenny (Three Girls, Dark Money) join the cast to portray Doreen Hill, the mother of Sutcliffe's last victim, Jacqueline Hill (played by The Durrells star Daisy Waterstone).

An English student at the University of Leeds, 20-year-old Jacqueline was returning to her halls of residence when she was murdered on 17 November 1980, less than two months before Sutcliffe was finally caught.

Here, Jill, 48, talks to TV Times about this challenging role...

Could you tell us about Doreen and Jacqueline at the point the series begins to follow their story?

The Hills are a normal family from Ormesby in North Yorkshire. Doreen’s a very forward-thinking woman, and Jackie is a really ambitious young girl who wants to go to university. But there have already been a number of murders, so Doreen is very anxious about her daughter going away.