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New ITV Drama Tells The Story Of The White House Farm Murders

New ITV Drama Tells The Story Of The White House Farm Murders

Stephen Graham will star as one of the detectives who investigated the brutal killings

Dominic Smithers

Dominic Smithers

The brutal murders of a family of five, including two young children, is set to be the focus of a new ITV drama.

Starring Stephen Graham, White House Farm delves into the shocking deaths of parents Nevill and June Bamber, their adoptive daughter Sheila Caffell and her two sons, Daniel and Nicholas.

On 6 August 1985, the family was shot dead in an Essex farmhouse. At the time, police suspected that Sheila (played by Cressida Bonas), who suffered with schizophrenia, was responsible for the murders.

It was believed that she had shot her relatives before turning the gun on herself, as it was found in her hands.

However, as the investigation continued, suspicions were raised that this may not have been the case, and that someone else had carried out the cold-blooded killings.

DS Stan Jones (played by Mark Addy) was the first officer to doubt that Sheila was involved in the murders, despite DCI Thomas Jones (Graham) believing Bamber's version of events.

Eventually, Sheila's adoptive brother Jeremy Bamber (played by Freddie Fox), who said he had been at home a few miles away at the time of the murders, was arrested in connection with the crime.

Following a trial in 1986, Bamber was convicted and sentenced to life in prison, with no possibility of parole.

It was found that he had tried to stage the scene of the murders to make it seem that Sheila was responsible, so he could benefit from the large inheritance.

To this day, Bamber maintains that he is innocent of all crimes and his lawyers have made several attempts to have his case reviewed.

Jeremy Bamber was convicted of the murders in 1986.
PA

The six-part drama has been written by Kris Mrksa and Giula Sandler.

Speaking about the horrific episode, Mrksa said he wanted to look at the story from the viewpoint of its affect on those involved.

He said: "This is an incredibly compelling true crime story, but it's the human dimension of these events that gripped my imagination, particularly after reading Colin Caffell's book.

"So much discussion of the case has focused on contested legal details, but I wanted to tell this story in a way that did justice to the devastating emotional truth of what happened."

Mrska and Sandler worked closely with Colin Caffell (played by Mark Stanley) whose wife and twin boys were murdered by Bamber.

Colin Caffell worked tirelessly to clear his wife, Sheila's, name.
PA

Speaking at the launch of drama, he said he worked hard to make sure his wife's name was cleared.

He said: "I had a choice whether to be completely consumed by it or to get above it.

"If I'd actually given in and been the victim it would have been a sense of defeat to Jeremy. I wasn't going to let him beat me.

"What I experienced after it all happened was yes everybody accepted that Jeremy was guilty. They kept on saying to me, 'but yes Sheila was a drug addict wasn't she? She used to beat the children didn't she?' and I said 'no that's not true'.

"She was very heavily medicated for her psychosis and that would have affected everything. There's no way she could have done any of the things they accused her of. But that idea stuck in the mind. And there's the attitude that they read it in the newspapers so it must be true. Now it's social media."

White House Farm starts on 8 January.

Featured Image Credit: ITV