BBC America orders Season 2 of 19th century cop drama 'Ripper Street'

NEW YORK, Jan. 29 (UPI) -- BBC America says it has ordered a second season of its 19th century, London-set crime drama "Ripper Street."

The eight-episode season is to begin airing in 2014.

The show stars Matthew Macfadyen, Jerome Flynn and Adam Rothenberg as East End detectives solving crimes in the aftermath of the infamous Jack the Ripper killing spree.

"I am enormously grateful to have been given the opportunity to return to 'H' Division once more and will be working tirelessly to ensure that those who have joined us each week will find ever more compelling crime-fighting thrills down on Ripper Street the second time around," creator and writer Richard Warlow said in a statement Tuesday. "The series will move forward into the 1890s; the death rattle of a century coming to a close, the labor pains of a modern world on the rise. It is this sense of climax and calamity that, week by week, our heroes will confront with conviction and heroism."