The Murder Of Rachel Nickell / The Witness TV preview: Revisiting a national trauma
Two new Netflix shows examine the notorious murder, the wrongful pursuit of an innocent suspect and the lasting impact on the victim's family
In 1992, 23-year-old Rachel Nickell was sexually assaulted and stabbed 49 times on Wimbledon Common in broad daylight, while golfers teed off less than 100 yards away. She had been walking with her two-year-old son Alex who became the sole witness to the attack. The man responsible would not be prosecuted for more than 15 years. Netflix is now revisiting the case through two separate but interconnected productions: the documentary The Murder Of Rachel Nickell and the drama The Witness. Together, they examine not only a horrifying act of violence but the institutional chaos and media frenzy that followed it.
Directed by Lucy Bowden, The Murder Of Rachel Nickell approaches the case through previously unseen archive footage of the victim’s family (haunting), interviews (also haunting) and (the nation’s favourite) intense procedural detail. The focus is the investigation’s catastrophic failures, becoming one of Britain’s most infamous miscarriages of justice when Colin Stagg was wrongfully arrested for the murder through an ethically heinous ‘honeytrap’ police operation. The documentary traces how tabloid pressure and public panic led investigators towards obsession rather than evidence.
By contrast, The Witness, written by Rob Williams (whose credits include Killing Eve and Screw) and directed by Alex Winckler, focuses more on the devastating emotional aftermath of the attack. The series follows Nickell’s partner André Hanscombe (jumping between 1992 and 2002) as he attempts to protect his son Alex from any further pain. Dramatising their experience, even sensitively, brings up difficult questions around the handling of childhood trauma in 90s policing.
Both productions attempt to position the case as a reflection of institutional failure: the devastating combination of the British public’s appetite for tragedy and a desperately incompetent police force. All of it is difficult but compelling viewing and certainly offers the big cry you may or may not need right now.
The Murder Of Rachel Nickell and The Witness are both available on Netflix from Thursday 4 June.