Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Freddie Fox, Mark Addy, Gemma Whelan, Stephen Graham, Cressida Bonas, Scott Reid, Alexa Davies, Mark Stanley, Grace Calder, Sean Gilder, Andrew Frame, Amy-Jayne Leigh, Amanda Burton, Oliver Dimsdale, Richard Goulding, Tom Christian, Alfie Allen, Amy McCallum, Dorian Lough, Nicholas Farrell, Millie Brady, Maimie McCoy, Jude Barrowcliffe, Nate Barrowcliffe, Oliver Zettertrom, Stewart Scudamore, Thomas Coombes, David Hunt, Nick Harris, Lucy Briggs-Owen, Amanda Lawrence.
The television viewer had become almost blinded by their own convictions when it comes to presenting a dramatization of a true, horrific and upsetting murder; the appearance and staging of such a case in which the facts are already partially known, and hopefully understood, somehow becomes a moment in which a few will turn the argument upside down in the wake of their perceived cause.
However, there are some cases that been brought to the national attention to which the public should be made aware of as many facts as possible; it might not change the outcome of the verdict handed down in court but it adds weight to the growing belief that we are not as informed as we should be when it comes to the diverse aspect of law, of the trained eye of the detective and the chance that in many scenarios crucial evidence has been lost, tampered with or even destroyed.
The senseless murders that took place at White House Farm in 1985 are such a point to which the issues raised will ultimately divide, the horrific nature of the murders of several members of the Bamber family by the now convicted Jeremy Bamber, resonated and resulted in a media sideshow which upon reflection showed the extent of just how destructive and sleazy the tabloids and media print at the time was.
If we move on almost 35 years the addition of social media, if it had been employed at the time, would have driven the case completely over the edge, and whilst the conviction of Jeremy Bamber is disputed by some, what is not up for debate is just how wrong the British media were in their conjecture, behaviour and imploring of the situation, taking advantage of a woman’s memory to whom the world saw not only as a victim but as someone defined by their mental illness,
To understand the case is to comprehend the times, and for that the makers of White House Farm should be congratulated for their bringing of such a sensitive subject into public discussion once more, especially in a period dominated by mental health awareness, the police culpability in the way they operated under pressure, and quite often by cutting corners and highlighting pre-conceived ideas and the way the public reacts, spurred on by the titillation in the press, to jump the bandwagon of guilt, relishing the recognition that but for the grace of humanity there we all sit in judgement in salacious delight.
A true story of horror, greed, family breakdown and society intrigue is a difficult responsibility to shoulder but as the sense of history is portrayed, so the makers of White House Farm delve carefully but deeply, into the crime, and with superb performances by Freddie Fox as the convicted Jeremy Bamber, Alexa Davies as Julie Mugford, to whose change of testimony helped convict her former boyfriend and Mark Addy as the dogged Detective Stan Jones who brought Jeremy Bamber to the dock, White House Farm is a depiction of a system of decay to which all who were involved brought the idea of media frenzy and cheque book journalism to even more national attention.
Such tragedies, such devastating behaviour will no doubt forever find a way to happen, it is how we respond to it that will shape our society in time to come. White House Farm is not just about an investigation into a murder, it is a reminder that we, as a society play our own part in such investigations, and one that is carefully played out on screen.
Ian D. Hall