The first television drama to be based on the life and crimes of the Yorkshire Ripper will be screened later this month, it was confirmed today.

This Is Personal, a four-hour account of the six-year manhunt for Bradford lorry driver Peter Sutcliffe, has been made by Manchester-based Granada TV.

The film centres on the war of words between West Yorkshire's top detectives and the still-unmasked Geordie hoaxer whose letters and tapes hindered their investigation.

Assistant Chief Constable George Oldfield became obsessed with the taunting voice on the tapes after giving a "personal guarantee" to the father of one of Sutcliffe's victims that he would catch her killer. He bore the continued failure of the investigation increasingly personally, and used the phrase "This is Personal" when he made the contents of the hoax letters public.

Oldfield died in 1985, four years after being taken off CID duties. Colleagues said at the time he was "a broken man".

Sutcliffe, jailed for life in 1981 for 13 murders and seven attempted murders, features only marginally in the programme. Viewers see his face for the first time in the penultimate scene.

Young actor Craig Cheetham, in his first TV role, plays Sutcliffe. Alun Armstrong, recently seen as Dan Peggotty in the BBC's Christmas adaptation of David Copperfield, plays Oldfield, and Richard Ridings and John Duttine are cast as his superintendents Dick Holland and Jim Hobson.

The drama, to be screened in two parts beginning on Wednesday, January 26, comes only a few months after Manhunt, another ITV examination of the Ripper inquiry. The new programme, however, breaks new ground by treating it as drama, not documentary.

Executive producer Mark Redhead, who also made last year's drama-documentary about the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence, said: "From the beginning, we were determined not to be voyeuristic."

The film features no acts of violence on screen, he said. "We were very conscious of the feelings of the victims and we have been in contact with as many of their families as possible."

Mr Redhead added: "It seems healthy to show what a serial murder investigation is really like - grinding, messy and drowning in paperwork, and hamstrung by preconceptions about women and sex."

The drama has been scripted by Neil McKay, whose other credits include episodes of The Bill, Casualty and London's Burning.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.