The brutal murder of two angelic boys, their mother and their grandparents at a secluded farmhouse in the Essex countryside in August 1985 was one of those awful stories that sticks in the mind.
Not least because at first everyone thought the killer was in fact one of the victims.
Schizophrenic Sheila Caffell, the adopted daughter of Nevill and June Bamber, was initially accused of shooting dead her parents and her six-year-old twins Daniel and Nicholas, then turning the gun on herself.
Police thought it was an open and shut case, until suspicions grew around Sheila’s brother Jeremy Bamber, who would have received a large inheritance.
A new ITV drama explores the five murders at White House Farm, Essex, that took place in 1985 (pictured left to right: Jeremy, Stan and Taff)
He told the police his father had called him at his home nearby on the day of the murders to say Sheila had a gun and had gone ‘berserk’, but those suspicions led to Jeremy being charged with the five murders, and in 1986 he was given a life sentence.
Now a new ITV drama, made with the support of Sheila’s ex-husband Colin Caffell, explores the human tragedy and reveals the police mistakes that would lead to wholesale changes in the way murder is investigated.
‘I remember the case so well,’ says Mark Addy, who plays DS Stan Jones, the man who eventually realises that Jeremy Bamber is the real culprit but has to go over the head of his superior to get the investigation going.
‘At the time it was the biggest mass killing in the UK. I remember watching footage of Bamber at the funeral and thinking, ‘I do not buy that.’
‘I’d just come out of drama school and I thought, ‘I can act better than that.’
The idea for the production started with the publication of a 2015 book looking into the killings, The Murders At White House Farm by Carol Ann Lee.
‘I’m interested in drama that explores complex experiences,’ says producer Willow Grylls.’
Prince Harry’s ex-girlfriend Cressida Bonas plays Sheila (pictured), who was initially accused of the murders, as well as turning the gun on herself
This case defined its era in so many ways. It was the first multiple murder case like this and mistakes made by the police resulted in huge changes.
‘It was also defining because of the way Sheila and her mental health issues were treated.
‘There was a wider human story that had never been talked about – particularly the impact on Colin.’
In 1994 Colin wrote his own book, In Search Of The Rainbow’s End, about the massacre in which his ex-wife and their two children died.
However, until producers approached him he had never talked to any TV researcher about the case.
‘Over the years I’ve been approached by many people but it never felt right to talk about it,’ he says.
Bamber did things that seemed out of character – Mark Addy
‘But the producers of this show were very respectful. I felt I could trust them.
‘They made it clear they wanted to tell the story properly, to get to the psychological underbelly of it.
‘One reason I wrote the book was to repair Sheila’s shattered reputation.
‘The sad thing is that she had met her birth mother only two months beforehand, and apart from when she gave birth to the twins I’d never seen her so happy.
‘She was more positive. The mistakes the police made were so bad that there is now an in-house police phrase, ‘Don’t do a Bamber.’
In her first big TV role, Prince Harry’s ex-girlfriend Cressida Bonas plays Sheila.
Cressida, who stars as the adoptive daughter of June Bamber (pictured as portrayed by Amanda Burton), revealed the drama aims to show another side to Sheila
‘It was important to give her a voice – the story was sensationalised, she was vilified for being “mad,”‘ says Cressida.
‘Mental health was seen differently then. When she died there was so much stuff saying she was unhinged. We wanted to show her other side.’
Colin admits seeing both Cressida as his ex-wife and Freddie Fox as her adoptive brother Jeremy Bamber was strange.
‘Once he’d dyed his blonde hair brown, it was scary how much Freddie looked like Jeremy,’ he admits.
‘And when I saw Cressida on screen, I couldn’t believe how similar she was to Sheila. She plays her beautifully.’
When she died, Sheila was vilified for being ‘mad’– Cressida Bonas
The series shows how the police initially believe Jeremy’s story that his sister had gone mad.
But gradually suspicions arise, particularly from Stan Jones who then clashes with his superior DCI Thomas ‘Taff’ Jones, played by Stephen Graham.
Stan is not convinced Sheila appears to have shot herself twice, but Taff ignores him and fails to secure the crime scene.
Evidence goes unrecorded and the bloodstained bedding and carpets are burned by police.
Stan is seconded to look after Jeremy as his police liaison officer, but soon begins to suspect him, as does a cousin, Ann Eaton, played by Gemma Whelan. ‘Taff is a bully in the show,’ says Mark.
‘Apparently he’d stand on the toe of your shoe while he was tearing a strip off you so you couldn’t get away.
Colin Caffell, who is the ex-husband of Sheila, vetted the scripts and believes the drama (pictured) gives a faithful account of what happened
‘But some of the police, especially Stan, had a beady eye and spotted something wasn’t right. Bamber did things that seemed out of character for someone supposedly desperately bereaved.’
Freddie Fox wasn’t born at the time of the murders but says his actor father Edward remembers them well.
‘For some people it’s a huge part of their cultural recollections,’ he says. ‘It was memorable, partly because Jeremy Bamber is someone with such a complex psychology.
‘I talked to Colin about Jeremy’s mannerisms, because I wanted to get as much right as possible. I soaked it all in.’
But while he considered going to talk to Jeremy himself, who has protested his innocence for the past 35 years, he decided not to.
‘I took a lot of advice on it,’ he says. ‘But he’s now a different person to the man I’m playing and I’m not sure what I would have gained from it.’
The show was filmed in Essex, just 45 miles from White House Farm, which was inherited by other family members who still live there.
Colin vetted all the scripts and is pleased the series gives a faithful account of what happened.
‘They’ve done a very good job. My biggest concern was that we’d be stereotyped as victims, but that hasn’t happened. I hope people will see Sheila in a new light.’
White House Farm begins on Wednesday at 9pm on ITV.