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VIDEO: Amazon revives BBC’s Ripper Street as it kills Lovefilm Instant brand

BBC crime drama Ripper Street will return for a third season on Amazon Prime Instant Video, the unwieldy new name for video streaming service Lovefilm Instant.

The new season following the adventurous of the Met Police’s H Division in Victorian London will premiere on Amazon PIV before screening on the BBC a few months later.

Amazon unveiled its new British signing as it discarded the cosy Lovefilm online brand in favour of its ultra-corporate American owner’s identity: Amazon Prime Instant Video.

Tim Leslie, vice president of Amazon Europe, said: “We want to deliver great movies and TV shows that our customers will love and there’s many ways to do that, and there’s no better example than this, a critically acclaimed show that millions of customers love.”

Ripper Street was axed by the BBC at the end of its second season last year, an unexpected decision which lead 85,000 fans to sign an online petition demanding its revival.

Richard Warlow, Ripper Street’s creator, said season three will be set four years later in 1884, and that writing for Amazon’s online viewers will allow a few more ‘bells and whistles’ than a BBC1 audience tuning in at 9pm.

Simon Vaughan, of Ripper Street producers Lookout Point, said: “Shows like Ripper Street can live on and on but be delivered to the public in new and interesting ways, so as a consumer and a producer this is very exciting.”

Amazon revives BBC’s Ripper Street as it kills Lovefilm Instant brand
Matthew McFadden and Jerome Flynn star in Ripper Street

Amazon Prime Instant Video’s international launch (it’s also replacing Lovefilm in Germany) is also the opening day for new comedy Alpha House.

Starring The Big Lebowski’s John Goodman, it follows four US senators sharing a house in Washington DC, it’s the latest major commission for Amazon Studios, following axe-wielding medieval adventure Vikings.

Lovefilm is currently priced £5.99/month and existing customers will continue at this price until their annual renewal comes up, but with the addition Amazon Prime seven-day next-day delivery and access to over 500,000 Kindle titles.

The standard Amazon Prime Instant Video price will be £79/year (£6.58/month) – £41.88 cheaper than both services together, but £30 more than the current cost of Amazon Prime.

Amazon Prime Instant Video also features more than 15,000 films and TV episodes, including ten Amazon Originals pilots which are free for anyone to watch without a subscription.

The Lovefilm name will live on for customers of the original direct-to-home DVD delivery service which spawned Lovefilm Instant.

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