The Fall Skydive Murder Plot channel 4

[Blackcats7]

I have just watched this on early streaming so not sure if it is on general viewing yet.
This is a documentary series about a man who tried to murder his wife by tampering with her parachute but she survived.
I remember it on the news at the time (all the more so as it was a local story) and also watched a previous documentary with Fiona Bruce a few years ago which is still available on netflix.
In the previous programme the wife would not be interviewed as she was still in denial due to the coercive control this evil man had and still was putting her through but she has participated in this new series.
It is a chilling insight into the level of control such men can have over their victims.
Well worth watching.

Bump

So it was a friend who gave them the first clue

He's interviewed and talked for 6 hours straight?

His reaction to being told about her accident was 'thank you'
That does come across rather suspicious!

Oh my god so he's got a picture of his woman on the side in his room 🤦‍♀️

Blaming the marriage problems on not having sex more than twice a week!!

I read her book recently, at one point they lived on the army base near here and I remember it being in the news.
just finished the 3 programmes, I don’t like how the film it with actors yet make the production part of it, found that quite annoying!
But a very interesting look at coercive control and the effect it can have on someone.
Did anyone else notice her pronouncing remember as renember? I kept thinking I’d misheard it.
Remarkable lady, hope she and her children can at some point move on from what he attempted to do to the whole family. Not something you will ever forget but I imagine this will forever be in the back of your mind. The gas leak was utterly heartless.

Ooh, I'm going to watch this tomorrow.

Have you read her book?
It's bloody brilliant !

I didn't know she had a book

Is it about the fall?

It's odd how they've shot it. It's not just reconstructions is it, it films the film crew saying to the actor 'now we're going to shoot your face reacting'
Odd way of doing it

I’ve seen a couple of other documentaries about this case and having sat through 90% of episode 1 I’m giving up , it’s so dull . I don’t like the way this has been filmed at all and they are really dragging it out . Maybe if I’d not seen the other documentaries it would have held my interest better .

Agree I didn’t like the use of actors. But it was very interesting in that this is the first time the wife took part. Previously she was still under his control and in denial.
I did wonder whether having finally accepted the truth if she apologised to the police at all. She doesn’t need too because her denial was all part of what her husband did to her but I thought she might have said something in thanks to the detectives dogged determination to bring a second trial after her false evidence buggered up the first one.

I agree, the way they filmed it seemed to just pad it out for time and I just don’t know why they did that. I knew the story and watched the previous documentary so I was only ever interested in seeing what she had to say which could probably have fitted into half hour!

Also I didn’t care much for how they kept talking to the detective about her life comparisons. Again I only wanted to hear what Victoria herself had to say.

It was long, drawn out and made it boring.

Agreed. Not sure I like it tbh

@purpleme12
Yes it's her memoirs .. much better than the programme.

Did it say he got 38 years?

I'm pleased he got a decent sentance, or am i imagining that.
About 15 years ago north cumbria had a case where a male had cheated on his wife, faked cancer, took out a life insurance policy then murdered her on a farm. He "got away" with it, for a few months anyway, it was only when his stepkids found a valantines card off the girlfriend where he got caught. And he only got 24 years for murder to get her out of the way, collect the insurance & move away with the new woman. So 38 years...
I'm pleased, i guess its the coersive control bit that added to the sentence.

I think he got life with a minimum of 18 years. He's served 9 years already. It's worrying what he'll do if he gets let out. He obviously has a knack of focusing on women who are a bit vulnerable and with low self esteem.
I felt sorry for the mother of his first two he got pregnant at 16 and then buggered off to England and married someone else.(Not Victoria) She said she phoned and said she couldn't afford nappies and he said he had no money but then bought expensive golf shoes the same day. He seems to be able to wrap women around his finger.
It must have been really hard for Victoria looking after a toddler and newborn after she'd fallen out of the sky. It's amazing she survived really. Even with the ploughed field. He must have been furious. Can't believe he was telling her from prison they could retire together.

I'm glad Nicolene met a much nicer man and good dad in the end.

Fascinating story but could have been told in one episode, with perhaps more examples of his coercive control and interpretations from a psychiatrist to illustrate it's effects. Agree the play within a play stuff was frankly irrelevant and self indulgent.

I watched it and quite enjoyed the format - something a bit different from the regular doc.
But yes, I hope the bastard stays in for his whole tariff.
i did also wonder whether Victoria knew of Nicolette or whether he never told her he had two other children.

It says here Emile is a father to 6 kids. Did he have two with the wife he had between Nicolene and Victoria maybe? I've forgotten her name
https://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/23064464.emile-cilliers-estranged-son-wants-reconnect-criminal-dad/

There's so many murder docs and whole channels devoted to them, so it seems they wanted to add new angles with seeing the actors being briefed (which I didn't like) and the female detective saying she came to policing late and was able to bring her own life experiences to the role. (Which I found interesting)

If he hadn't gone to prison I wonder how many more women he'd have had two kids with then abandoned

I really liked the format and the way the sorry was told. What amazing women to come through all they did.