TV Pick of the Week: The Witness - review by Yvette Huddleston
The Witness Netflix, review by Yvette Huddleston
In 1992 a shocking incident took place on Wimbledon Common. While out walking with her toddler son Alex, young mother Rachel Nickell was brutally attacked and murdered.
The details of the crime – Nickell was stabbed 49 times in front of her two-year-old son who was found by a passer-by clinging to his mother’s – were, and are, profoundly disturbing. This three-part dramatization focusses as much on the family that Nickell left behind – her partner André (Jordan Bolger) and Alex (played by Jahsaiah Williams, then later by Max Fincham as a teenager) – as on the deeply flawed police investigation into the murder.
The opening episode centres on the shock and devastation, the terrible new reality that André faces, not only processing the violent death of the woman he loved, but also knowing that his beloved son was the only witness to her killing. André’s instinct is, of course, to protect the boy, but the police are pressing him to let them question Alex. A child psychologist is brought in to try and unlock some memory – but is remembering likely to traumatise the boy further? Does he even understand what he saw?
As the police come under pressure from the media and the public to make an arrest, bad decisions are made and the investigation seems to falter. Lead detective Keith Pedder (Neil Maskell) is brought in to head up the case and is put under pressure by his bosses – and the tabloid press. André and Alex are trying to keep a low profile, hiding out at the home of his mother (Kerry Godliman) avoiding the press, and when the paparazzi descend on her home and no progress has been made by the police, André decides he and Alex should leave the country.
They move first to France and then to Spain where they attempt to make a new life for themselves, fleeing the past and not revealing to anyone, including Alex’s teachers, the real reason they left the UK. Effectively they become fugitives. Meanwhile the police use an undercover police officer to entrap their prime suspect who turns out to be innocent of the crime, while the real killer goes on to kill again.
The script, written by Rob Williams in collaboration with André and Alex, deals candidly and sensitively with the complex emotions at play and the not always easy relationship between father and son, while highlighting the missteps of the police.