Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Telly addicts

Related: Film discussion forum.

Original poster

White House Farm - The Bamber Murders. Jan 8th ITV 9pm

859 replies

Dogleg · 30/12/2019 21:04

Is anyone else planning to watch this six part series? I vaguely remembered the killings and on seeing this advertised have now lost hours to reading up about it online and have also downloaded a book about the case. I’m really looking forward to this one!

www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2019-12-25/itv-drama-white-house-farm/

OP posts:
JudyCoolibar · 13/02/2020 13:44

I agree with JaneJeffer. You'd have to be absolutely desperate as a JB supporter if you took that as validating his case in any way.

I hadn't previously grasped that Neville Bamber had been beaten as well as shot. That makes it even less likely that Sheila was responsible, particularly given the lack of any signs of a struggle on her body. So if anything last night's programme has cemented my view that JB is guilty as hell.

Dieu · 13/02/2020 13:48

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

TheCountessofFitzdotterel · 13/02/2020 14:10

I have been wondering about the possibility that Julie might have been more involved in planning the crime than she claimed.
She claimed that she thought he was joking. However, for him to have been happy about a police car going to fetch her from London on the day after the murders he must have been confident she wasn't going to go 'omg, the maniac actually did it!' and grass him up immediately, so he must have at least thought she knew he meant it. By the same token, he must have been pretty confident in her silence to take the risk of dumping her.
It's entirely possible that his confidence was just due to his own arrogance and narcissm - assuming besotted Julie would continue to play the role he had defined for her.
However I wonder if another possible scenario was that he thought she wanted him to do the murders because she did, and they had planned it together. That would explain why she reacted so little to the call telling her it was going OK and would explain how she managed to keep her mouth shut for a month. However, when he dumped her she realised she was actually in a position to get her revenge as he wouldn't be able to implicate her without confessing himself.
If the police realised this it would not be implausible for them to realise she was their best chance of getting Bamber convicted for the crime, so would be willing to do a deal with her, and would explain why the police spent such an unusually long time talking to her ahead of the trial (see the Scott Lomax book).

CanIHaveATiaraPlease · 13/02/2020 14:35

I also wonder whether once JB ended their relationship she came out of whatever FOG she was in.

Dieu · 13/02/2020 14:43

Every time I post something about JM, it's deleted. I've never had this happen with any of my other comments on MN, so not a particularly incendiary poster!

JaneJeffer · 13/02/2020 14:55

Strange. I hate when I miss deleted posts!

ShesGotBetteDavisEyes · 13/02/2020 14:55

I think it’s because your posts were stating something slanderous as fact Dieu
JM wasn’t charged with anything - and if it wasn’t for her coming forward (albeit 4 weeks later) JB wouldn’t have been put away.

SouthWestmom · 13/02/2020 15:25

I think it's bloody weird she identified the bodies - the spiritual thing- how true is that? She didn't seem particularly close to any of them that you might offer.

SouthWestmom · 13/02/2020 15:34

This is the interview but I can't find a transcript anywhere just snippets

Aworldofmyown · 13/02/2020 15:53

God, there's a newspaper I don't miss 😳🤢

TheCountessofFitzdotterel · 13/02/2020 15:59

There's a place in 1980s hell for whoever styled and made her up for that photo!

Figgygal · 13/02/2020 16:14

Really enjoyed the show it was a case I wasn’t familiar with though did know the name Jeremy Bamber.

I did think it could have been maybe 4 episodes not 6

CanIHaveATiaraPlease · 13/02/2020 17:20

They did similar to friend of a friend who dated a rapist Countess

Her boyfriend actually phoned the papers. Scumbag.

Fifteenthnamechange · 13/02/2020 17:23

I'm expecting some kind of move from JB after the end of this programme-his ego won't be able to handle the slur on his character. So perhaps a new appeal, more newspaper interviews...
I think he's had his chances with appeals though. Nothing of the new evidence he presented at the C of A materially changed the case IMO.

SouthWestmom · 13/02/2020 17:37

Well I think very little of JM. Unfair maybe bit she was minted if she stayed with him (hence leaving it til he dumped her) and then minted when when she wasn't.

LordOfTheWhys · 13/02/2020 17:43

I wonder if everything with JM started the other way round. Iirc JM said she couldn't be physically near JB. She moved back to her flat.
Perhaps JB thought she was starting to waver and decided if she was going to go to the police, he was better dumping her first so he could say she was lying to get back at him.

LordOfTheWhys · 13/02/2020 17:44

What did Colin Caffell say about JM?

SouthWestmom · 13/02/2020 17:46

In the court case she said she loved him after the murders and that didn't change. I imagine much of it was from the transcripts. CF seemed angry with her initially and then asked her to tell the truth in the tv show

TheCountessofFitzdotterel · 13/02/2020 18:16

That also seems possible, LordOfTheWhys.

JudyCoolibar · 13/02/2020 18:33

I'm expecting some kind of move from JB after the end of this programme-his ego won't be able to handle the slur on his character. So perhaps a new appeal, more newspaper interviews...

He's apparently trying for a new appeal through the CCRC - maybe he thought it would be a pre-emptive strike. Sounds pretty hopeless, however.

Fifteenthnamechange · 13/02/2020 19:14

@JudyCoolibar I agree. Whilst the police monumentally fucked up this case (not unheard of in the 80s), that also works in JB's favour. He wasn't arrested initially, his house wasn't searched, he/his clothes weren't tested for ballistics/blood/evidence of struggle. Did anyone check whether he had washed any clothes that night? Did he wash at WHF? Any blood in his house? Anything suspicious in his bins? Was any bike examined? Did anyone see him/anyone on a bike that night?
If you start these enquiries a few weeks down the line most witnesses will forget/misremember stuff & physical indicators of guilt will be long gone.
So if you presume he's guilty-which is fair given conviction & C of A upholding that conviction-then he should be grateful Essex Police made a hash of it.

ChicChicChicChiclana · 13/02/2020 20:17

I'm so sorry - I never have to admit to this because I always do - but I haven't rtft since I last posted. I just can't navigate my way round long threads on my phone and right now Mumsnet is jumping around all over the place when I tap on a thread in "Active Conversations" or "I'm on" so I find myself 2 or 3 threads above or below the one I wanted to be on.

Anyhoo, I haven't changed my opinion of JM after watching the final episode. She should have been in prison (like Maxine Carr) instead of getting a payment of at least 3x her annual salary from NOTW. How fucking corrupt and sleazy.

LordOfTheWhys · 13/02/2020 21:29

I'd guess JM is probably as unhappy with the programme as JB is. She doesn't come across well at all. And, in a way, she's more of a cipher than JB because we know his motivation and his history (ie adopted, didn't get on with his family, felt entitled to the family wealth, etc). There's no clues why JM acted as she did. Was it love? money? coercive control?
If she hadn't come forward then the police might not have arrested JB. They might not have gone back to the farm. They might not have found the prints on the window and JB wouldn't have admitted he climbed in the window etc. She was integral to them looking at everything again. So it is thanks to her that he's behind bars but she's not an easy character.

crustycrab · 13/02/2020 22:39

@Supersimkin2 you can't get a few years off a whole life tariff 🤷🏽‍♀️

Bluerussian · 14/02/2020 00:32

I felt sorry for JM; she never dreamed Bamber would do it and then, when it was done, she suspected him and eventually thought it was him. She must have been in quite a state.

I don't blame her one bit for getting a decent amount of dosh, she could have a new start somewhere and make sure she wasn't recognised.

However, though it looks as though JB did it there is, to me, an element of doubt.