FLESH & BLOOD
FREDDIE FOX, MARK ADDY AND GEMMA WHELAN STAR IN A NEW DRAMA BASED ON A HORRIFIC REAL-LIFE CRIME…
On 7 August 1985, June and Nevill Bamber, their daughter, Sheila, and her six-year-old twins, Nicholas and Daniel, were found shot to death at their Essex home. The Bambers’ 24-year-old son Jeremy was convicted of killing his whole family in order to inherit his parents’ vast estates – though he continues to protest his innocence 35 years on.
Based on extensive research, this new six-part drama aims to give new insight into the case. Inside TV spoke to Freddie Fox (Jeremy), Mark Addy (DS Stan Jones) and Gemma Whelan (Ann Eaton) to find out more…
“Essex Police at that time were coming under increasing pressure to get a backlog of cases cleared,” explains Mark. “So the instruction was, ‘Let’s get this over and done with’. Stan feels that something’s not right, but struggles to get his voice heard, so, ultimately, has to break the rules and go above the head of his superior.”
Ann, too, is key in raising the alarm as she grows suspicious about her cousin’s behaviour following the murders.
“She hears Jeremy speaking to the police, and realises that what he’s saying doesn’t sound like what she knows to be the truth,” reasons Gemma. “She arrives at the house completely devastated, then sees Jeremy behaving oddly, so it happens quickly for her that something isn’t quite as it should be.”
Despite her doubts early on about the initial murder-suicide theory, with the weapon found on Sheila’s body, police chiefs were sure she’d fired the shots, then turned the gun on herself.
“I think the way it happened at the time was that Jeremy was largely believed to be innocent,” shares Freddie. “But as the character arc carries through the drama, it takes a very particular angle on what happened.”
Indeed, viewing this with today’s eyes gives us a chance to acknowledge how things have changed since the 80s.
“It caused the police to alter their procedures,” confirms Mark. “Now, all crime scenes have to be kept forensically sound – people then were just traipsing through; there were footsteps through bloody puddles, it was an absolute nightmare.”
As Gemma concurs, “If it wasn’t for Stan and Ann noticing certain things, we could be sitting here now with a completely different outcome…”
PEOPLE WERE JUST TRAIPSING THROUGH BLOODY PUDDLES”
MARK