White House Farm (TV series)


White House Farm is a British crime drama television miniseries based on the real-life events that took place in August 1985. The series was produced by New Pictures for ITV and distributed worldwide by All3Media. It was broadcast by ITV on 8 January 2020.

Premise

The series is based on true events from 6 August 1985. Five members of the Bamber-Caffell family are shot to death at White House Farm, Essex. The police, led by detectives DCI Taff Jones and DS Stan Jones, are called in to investigate.
When questioning the Bamber's son Jeremy Bamber, he claims that his sister, Sheila, who was suffering from schizophrenia, went "beserk", got hold of a suppressed rifle and killed their parents and Shelia's six-year old twin sons. As the murder case unravels, a devastating twist comes to light.

Cast

Production

The series was first reported on in August 2018, when filming had begun. Stephen Graham, Freddie Fox and Cressida Bonas were announced as being cast. Mark Addy, Gemma Whelan, Mark Stanley, Alexa Davies, Alfie Allen, Amanda Burton and Nicholas Farrell also appeared in the series.

Reception

Stephen Graham's portrayal of Welsh detective "Taff" Jones drew some criticism, with a number of pundits, including Carolyn Hitt of WalesOnline, stating that his Welsh accent was inauthentic. Some online commentators described the accent as the "worst screen accent since Dick Van Dyke".

Foreign sales

In November 2019 HBO Max closed a deal to air the miniseries on their service in the United States. The series was also aired in the Netherlands in June 2020 by the Dutch broadcaster KRO-NCRV, adding the word "murders" to the series' title.