A Filmmaker's Review: "White House Farm" (ITV, 2020)

I think that a lot of people in England who are interested in true crime like myself would have either heard of, remembered or read about/researched the case of the murderer, Jeremy Bamber. Bamber walked into his parents house with a shotgun, killed his adoptive mother and father, killed his sister and killed her two sons who were less than ten years' old. Why? for the inheritance. Honestly, when I saw it was on Netflix I was quite surprised that they chose to make a series out of it because of the way in which the police completely botched the investigation - this was about to make the British Police System look like utter crap. But, in this day and age, I think it is time for them to accept their faults in this investigation and how it was carried out.

First of all, I would like to praise the writing of this production. The writing was not only believable but it was fluently delivered, it felt like a true story. You got the feeling that this is what people would have said if they were there, this is the way in which they would have said it and it was written down to perfection on what was said and when it was said in accordance to how it played out in the story. It has to be one of the best written true crime series I have seen in a very long time.

Secondly, there is the directing and casting department. I felt like every single actor fit well into their role and not only that but they actually looked like the blood relatives were related. For example: you can see certain resemblances between Ann and her aunt June, you can see similarities between the boys and their parents: Sheila and Colin. The next part being the directing, I felt like there was a very thorough sense of what the director wanted and how they wanted it done. The fact that there was a very clear vision in mind made this production a whole lot better and more fluent in delivery.

The third thing I want to focus on is the acting. I thought that the acting was superb. The man who portrays Jeremy Bamber makes the perfect psychopath. I think that if anyone would be interested to see it then he should seek to portray a character such as the infamous Ian Brady in the future. The darkness surrounding how convincing he can be is incredible as he constantly looks like he is just about on the verge of falling apart. The woman who portrays Sheila is possibly my next favourite seeing as she is a troubled woman and you feel ultimately sorry for her being dealt such a hand where people are constantly controlling her and pushing her around.

But, I also think one of the best acted roles in this entire series was the woman who portrays Julie or, sometimes referred to as 'Jules'. She is absolutely brilliant in her role as this psychologically abused victim of psychopathy who eventually runs to police and breaks down. She has clearly done her research on abuse victims and makes no attempt to spare reasoning. I think that this was a perfect opportunity for this actress to get her talent out there and I am looking forward to seeing more of her work in the future.

All in all, I think that this production could not have been better. It was a perfectly cast, perfectly acted and perfectly written performance of a turbulent case in which five innocent people died, including two young adorable little children who never did anything to anyone.