The Witness looks at the murder of Rachel Nickell on Wimbledon Common, on July 15th 1992, where the only person who saw the tragedy, was her two-year-old son, Alex, and the investigation became one of the most contraversial in British police history.
With an initial voiceover from Alex as an adult, this swaps back and forth between 1992 and 2002, the latter seeing police looking at new DNA techniques, in order to reanalyse all the samples, but it’s the ’90s when most of this takes place, as DCI Keith Pedder (Neil Maskell – Litvinenko) is tasked with getting to the bottom of the case. He describes it as “a poisoned chalice“, given the tough task ahead, while his superior tells him to look at it as “a chance to prove yourself”, meaning that no-one else wants it, and this boss will soon be off to leave him to wallow in it.
There’s heartfelt moments, such as the police telling André (Jordan Bolger – Believe Me), Rachel’s bereaved partner, how he has to be honest with Alex (Max Fincham, in his teenage years) from the start, but alongside taking him to the identifying of her body, where do you begin trying to reason with someone who’s not only lost their mother, but who isn’t even three years old!
Also taking in the arrest of main suspect Colin Stagg, and Andre taking Alex away to Spain to escape the press, The Witness is well-acted, but too often does feel like everyone’s standing around all, “Here’s where we explain the plot”, especially in the second episode where two characters discuss a potential suspect, since rather than one man detail what happened with the individual, they’ll say one sentence after another, with the other character repeatedly adding, “And…?”, which doesn’t sound at all natural.
There’s also an accompanying documentary, but while I haven’t seen that yet, I remember the murder dominating the news back when it happened.
Fans of The Young Ones, like myself, may remember that the finale of series 2 of Bottom, “‘s Out”, was originally scheduled for November 5th 1992, but because it was set on Wimbledon Common, the BBC shelved it, even though it had absolutely nothing to do with this case – it was simply the location that matched. It was eventually aired on April 10th 1995, two months after the third and final series ended.
Thanks to our friends at Netflix for the screener prior to release.
The Witness is on Netflix from today.
It’s not yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but when it is, it will be listed on the New DVD, Blu-ray, 3D and 4K releases UK page.
Check out the trailer below:
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 45-60 minutes per episode (3 episodes)
Release date: June 4th 2026
Studio: Netflix
Format: 1.78:1
Director: Alex Winckler
Producer: Alison Sterling
Writer: Rob Williams
Music: Oliver Coates
Cast:
André Hanscombe: Jordan Bolger
Alex Hanscombe: Max Fincham
Tony Nash: James Bradshaw
Rachel Nickell: Eleanor Williams
DCI Keith Pedder: Neil Maskell
Ivan Agnew: Mark Stanley
Tony Nash: James Bradshaw
Miller: James Dryden
Samantha Bisset: Katharine Pearson
June: Kerry Godliman
Mick Wickerson: The Actor Kevin Eldon
Paul Sparshatt: Jon Pointing
Detective Jackaman: Oliver Devoti
Professor Paul Britton: Paul Chahidi
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.