Audience who enjoyed a sneak preview of new series of Whitechapel take part in fake ‘murder investigation’

WOULDN’T you be taken aback if you were queuing for popcorn at the cinema and you were pulled aside to help with a murder investigation?

That was the fate to befall visitors to the Genesis cinema in Mile End Road last night (October 7), but thankfully the body wrapped in a plastic bag at a crime scene on the cinema’s first floor wasn’t the real deal.

Visitors were taking part in an ‘interactive experience’ at the premiere of the second series of Whitechapel, the ITV ‘copy-cat’ detective series which this time sees its two hero policemen on the trail of relatives of the notorious East End gangsters the Kray twins.

“We’re quite new to Whitechapel so we thought we’d learn more by coming,” said Kate Coles, 23, of Cleveland Grove, after she had helped police detectives, all played by actors, with their pretend investigation.

“Maybe we don’t want to hear about it if it’s the gruesome side of the East End.”

A packed audience enjoyed a sneak preview of the dark tale, complete with gruesome murders, in which Rupert-Penry Jones (DI Chandler) and Phil Davis (DS Miles) hunt for Jimmy and Johnny Kray, who are attempting to resurrect Reggie and Ronnie’s crime empire in the modern-day.

Leonard ‘Nipper’ Read, 85, the former Met police officer who was instrumental in catching the real-life twins, was on hand to enjoy the show after acting as a script consultant on the programme.

Of his investigation, which involved a squad of 235 officers, he said: “It was complicated by the fact that the people of the East End of London didn’t want to say anything about the Krays because they were terrified of them.

“I think they’ve taken the enquiry and portrayed it in a certain way.”

The first episode of the new series is on ITV 1 on Monday (October 11) at 9pm.