Netflix’s True Crime Miniseries ‘The Witness’ Turns a Real-Life Bungled Investigation Into a Methodical Drama

“I went for a walk with my mother when I was a child, and she never made it home.”

That’s the matter-of-fact, yet truly devastating, opening line which instantly proves “The Witness” isn’t interested in further sensationalizing one of the most sensationalized murders in recent UK history. The case of Rachel Nickell, a 23-year-old mother stabbed to death in broad daylight as she walked her two-year-old son in a London park, barely left the tabloids in the 1990s, creating a trial by media which wrongly influenced not only public opinion but a Metropolitan police team who plumbed new depths of incompetence. 

Although better known for his entirely fictional — and often fantastical — crime shows, writer Rob Williams (“Killing Eve,” “Suspicion”) lets the damning evidence speak for itself. His melodramatic impulses are no doubt kept in check by the input from Nickell’s partner André Hanscombe and their now-grown-up son Alex, plus the accompanying documentary, “The Murder of Rachel Nickell,” which Netflix is dropping on the same day as the dramatized miniseries.

Wisely, the three-parter doesn’t dwell on the horrific incident, quickly cutting from the brief glimpse Nickell sees of her attacker to the emergency services response: the heartbreaking sight of a bloodied and dazed, but thankfully unharmed, toddler in the back of an ambulance says it all. In one of many contemporaneous news bulletins which help illustrate the insatiable press interest, we learn Alex (Jahsaiah Williams) was found by a passer-by desperately clinging onto his mother’s lifeless body while pleading with her to get up.  

In the immediate aftermath, “The Witness” effortlessly blends together the grieving family portrait and the urgent manhunt as André (Jordan Bolger) and a pair of amiable “fun uncle” detectives try their best to coax the necessary information out of a young boy inevitably more interested in playing with toy dinosaurs than bringing his mom’s killer to justice. “He hasn’t cried once,” André notes about his son’s behavior before a therapy session that turns aggressive exacerbates his worries.  

‘The Witness’Courtesy of Netflix

However, as both the pressure to find the culprit and the fear Alex may still be at harm intensifies, the story splits into two. The Hanscombes move to Spain in an attempt to leave their trauma behind, with the flashforwards to various points in the 2000s proving time and distance aren’t always the great healers. Concurrently, the Met botch their way through their investigation, diverting all their attention to an entirely innocent man while ignoring the serial offender under their nose.

It’s to Williams’ credit that both sides compel. 

Bolger, best-known to global audience for his roles in “The 100,” “The Book of Boba Fett,” and “The Crow,” doesn’t waste his opportunity in more grounded fare, delivering a stoic performance as a man forced to internalize his agony while simultaneously adapting to single parenthood in the most tragic circumstances imaginable.  

He also shares a convincing father-son chemistry with the grown-up Alex (Max Fincham), now an understandably troubled teen determined to keep the vague memories of his other parent alive, whether through the bottle of perfume he hides under his pillow or adhering to her pescatarian diet. “I don’t want to remember mum for her death,” he shouts in one of several slanging matches that occasionally threaten to spill into violence. “Is this really the boy she gave her life for?” André asks during another particularly raw argument sparked by a run-in with the law. The real Hanscombes appear to have been unflinching in their honesty.  

‘The Witness’Courtesy of Rekha Garton/Netflix

Britain’s largest police force, on the other hand, is presented as the height of duplicity. Frustrated at the lack of evidence and feeling the heat of the gutter press, their determination to hone in on their sole suspect would be laughable if not for the catastrophic consequences. Colin Stagg’s (comedic actor Jamie Bisping impressing in a rare straight role) only crime was vaguely fitting the profile of a white loner with deviant sexual fantasies: insisting the chance of two such individuals being in the same vicinity were “vanishingly small,” the psychology profession in 1992 seemed staggeringly naive.   

“The Witness” doesn’t have the time to delve as deep into the Met’s most astonishing tactic as 2021’s “Deceit,” a miniseries in which BAFTA nominee Niamh Algar played an undercover officer tasked with luring a confession out of Stagg. Nevertheless, the nuts and bolts of this honeytrap plot, known as Operation Edzell, still make the jaws drop. Likewise, the backpedaling and buck-passing once the realization hits that it’s led to — as Sir David Frost best summarizes in another well-chosen archival clip — “one of the great fiascos in police history.” 

Those unfamiliar with the story will also be dumbfounded by the catalog of mistakes that not only put Stagg behind bars for 14 months, but allowed the real killer to roam free (and kill again) for another two years. Without wishing to give away the ending of a real-life case finally resolved in 2008, the information disclosed is anger-inducing and the unresponsive, unemotional demeanor of the perpetrator truly chilling.    

‘The Witness’Courtesy of Rekha Garton/Netflix

It could be argued the final episode spends too much screentime focusing on — and even trying to understand — someone so depraved, particularly when his victims aren’t afforded the same treatment. We learn little about Rachel and we only spend a minute in her company before her untimely death. That said, the companion doc paints a much fuller picture, and it’s a testament to her legacy that André and Alex’s complex relationship — as the epilogue states — is now closer than ever.  

Parallels can be drawn with “Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles De Menezes,” another shocking indictment of the Met’s inadequacies and culture of self-preservation. Unshowy, unhurried, and methodical — everything the institution at its heart was not — it’s ultimately less true crime dramatization and more invaluable public service broadcasting.

All three episodes of “The Witness” will start streaming on Netflix on Thursday, June 4.