Netflix has just dropped all three episodes of its latest true crime series, The Witness, a dramatisation of the 1992 murder of mother-of-one Rachel Nickell.
The three-part series is also based on Rachel’s son, Alex Hanscombe’s memoir, Letting Go. Alex was just aged two when his mother was murdered, and he was with her at the time of her murder.
At the same time as the series, Netflix released a standalone documentary, The Murder of Rachel Nickell, which delves into the years-long police investigation into Rachel’s murder.
In a joint statement, released ahead of the show Alex and André, Rachel’s widower, said: “Our life has been a battle. We can never express how indebted we are to everyone that’s been a part of this, for the kindness and generosity they’ve extended to us, for the chance they took with us in bringing our story to the screen, and for the care they have taken.”
They added: “Our journey has all been by the grace of God and a promise to go on together, and we feel incredibly blessed to be able to share our story in this way. We hope that audiences will be left with a testament to the tough battle of life we all face and to the power of faith, hope, love – and never giving up.”
What happened in the Rachel Nickell case?
Rachel was murdered by Robert Napper on 15 July 1992 when she was walking with her then two-year-old son on Wimbledon Common. Robert stabbed the mother-of-one 49 times, and she died at the scene.
© Courtesy of Rekha Garton/NetflixThe case initially went cold, and a bungled investigation saw an innocent man charged, before he was acquitted. The case was reopened in 2002 following advances in DNA matching. In 2006, Scotland Yard interviewed Robert, who by that time was serving a sentence at Broadmoor following the murder of Samantha Bisset and her four-year-old daughter, Jazmine, which had happened 16 months after Rachel was murdered.
Robert, who has paranoid schizophrenia and Asperger syndrome, was charged with Rachel’s murder on 28 November 2007. After initially pleading not guilty, Robert pleaded guilty on grounds of diminished responsibility, and he was sentenced to be detained at Broadmoor indefinitely.
Reaction to The Witness
While fan reviews are yet to come in, The Witness has been critically praised. In a four-star review for the Telegraph, Chris Bennion wrote: “Early scenes in which Hanscombe and various police officers attempt to get a witness statement from Alex are handled beautifully. Director Alex Winckler shows his hand from the start: we see Nickell and Alex playing in the park. And then we see the empty, still woods. We don’t need to see any more. The less The Witness shows us, the more harrowing it becomes.“
© Courtesy of Ana Blumenkron/NetflThe Guardian’s Jack Seale also gave the drama a four-star rating, saying: “If both that section of the narrative and the one following the later cold-case investigation that caught the real killer feel perfunctory, they give us a strange sort of respite from André and Alex’s ordeal. They had to live it, without help or relief; The Witness is a valuable insight into what that hell was like.”
Who stars in The Witness?
© Courtesy of NetflixJordan Bolger (Peaky Blinders) stars as André Hanscombe, alongside Max Fincham (Dark Money) as Alex Hanscombe, Neil Maskell (Utopia) as DI Keith Pedder, Kevin Eldon (I’m Alan Partridge) as DCI Mick Wickerson, Mark Stanley (Happy Valley) as DS Ivan Agnew, Jon Pointing (Big Boys) as DC Nick Sparshatt, James Dryden (Time Bandits) as DC Paul Miller, Kerry Godliman (After Life) as June, James Bradshaw (Hollyoaks) as DCI Tony Nash and Claire Rushbrook (Ammonite) as Dr Jean Harris-Hendriks.
