Picture Credit: Rekha Garton/Netflix
More than three decades after Rachel Nickell’s tragic murder shook the United Kingdom, Netflix’s 3-part series The Witness explores the aftermath through the eyes of the two people who lived it: her partner André and her son Alex.
Over the years, Netflix has cultivated a strong reputation for series based on true events, famously with Baby Reindeer and Toxic Town, and more recently Legends. For those series, while they do openly fictionalize some events for creative purposes, Netflix reaches out directly to those who were involved in real-life in order to grasp the story with authenticity.
For instance, Baby Reindeer was created by Richard Gadd, who starred as himself as he recounted the traumatic events of being stalked. For Toxic Town, the streamer famously reached out to the real-life mothers and families in Corby. And in the recent Legends, the real-life Guy Stanton consulted directly with the show’s creator, Neil Forsyth, to offer first-hand anecdotes.
In Netflix’s latest British series based on true events, The Witness, we follow Alex (played by Max Fincham as a teenager, and Jahsaiah Williams as a child) and André Hanscombe (played by Jordan Bolger) as they try to live their lives after experiencing the ultimate traumatic event. When Rachel Nickell (played by Eleanor Williams) was murdered on Wimbledon Common in 1992, André became a single parent overnight. His son, Alex, was the only witness to the attack, which took place in broad daylight and saw his mother get stabbed over 40 times. The murder case sparked unimaginable media attention, and both Alex and André were unable to live quiet lives. What’s more, the investigation into the murder of Rachel had immense complications — their 2-year-old Alex was the only witness — and the police found themselves trying to solve the case through increasingly unorthodox and controversial methods, not least the arrest and prosecution of Colin Stagg, who was later acquitted. The real killer, Robert Napper, wasn’t apprehended until 15 years later.
The series is created by Rob Williams, who’s best known for his work on The Victim and Screw. It’s produced by John Yorke, Sarah Browne, and Alison Sterling. Both Alex and André were directly involved as series consultants.
Alex Hanscombe was two years old — and a month away from his third birthday — when the unthinkable murder of his mother occurred. “I have memories of both my parents together, some very early memories,” he told Netflix in a Q&A session. “I was blessed to have two incredibly loving parents who cared deeply about me, went the extra mile for me and were willing to suffer for me. The feeling of love and of being loved in return and the purity of that kind of love is something impossible to forget. I can’t explain the desire or drive to move forward to overcome what happened to us, it’s just something that was in my heart. I think everything that’s happened was a combination of my parents’ care and love for me, and God’s grace.”
Alex and André Hanscombe discuss the making of The Witness and The Murder of Rachel Nickell
When making a series like The Witness (and a companion documentary, titled The Murder of Rachel Nickell), the Netflix team had a duty to cover the story with both authenticity and genuine truth. And as a result, they reached out to the two people who know the most: Rachel Nickell’s son Alex and partner André. The two had input from the beginning, serving as consultants on The Witness and directly contributing to The Murder of Rachel Nickell.
“Our life has been a battle,” Alex and André Hanscombe said. “We can never express how indebted we are to everyone that’s been a part of this, for the kindness and generosity they’ve extended to us, for the chance they took with us in bringing our story to the screen, and for the care they have taken. Our journey has all been by the grace of God and a promise to go on together, and we feel incredibly blessed to be able to share our story in this way. We hope that audiences will be left with a testament to the tough battle of life we all face and to the power of faith, hope, love – and never giving up.”
The Witness. (L to R) Max Fincham as Alex Hanscombe, Jordan Bolger as André Hanscombe, in The Witness. Cr. Courtesy of Sophie Köehler/Netflix © 2026
The series is based on the 2015 novel Letting Go: A True Story of Murder, Loss and Survival by Rachel Nickell’s Son by Alex Hanscombe, where he details a powerful, inspirational account of his life to that point. “Over the years, I have tried to make sense of and come to terms with what happened,” he said. “Writing the book was part of that process, but it’s a complicated journey and, for me and my father, we never felt we’d got it quite right nor that we’d stopped growing, and we both felt that there was still a part of the story to share to truly honour my mother’s memory. At the heart of sharing our journey from darkness to light is the desire to help others. We don’t always know why things happen, the ‘why?’ of our pain and suffering, nor are there guarantees of what our future will be – our message is to never give up or lose hope. That life is a battle worth fighting for, and that it’s worth sacrificing everything to follow what’s in your heart.”
The TV series wasn’t something that Netflix has quickly thrown together; it’s a project that’s been long gestating for over a decade. “Rob [Williams] the writer and John [Yorke] the executive producer reached out to us when they first heard I might be writing our story, about thirteen years ago,” Alex said. “We’ve been in touch with them ever since.”
As viewers of the series will see, both Alex and André struggled to live with the immense media impact that came with the case. The duo moved abroad to France and Spain, attempting to live a life of solitude, away from media attention. Making this series is circling back in a lot of ways. They feel it’s a story to be told, that there’s a powerful message to be conveyed. “We’ve always had a great deal of trepidation, we know this is a story that has affected a lot of people: it’s a story that traumatised the nation at the time,” André noted. “At first, we wanted to get as far away as possible, and live a life of solitude and anonymity abroad, but in many ways that became impossible. There was no escaping it. People suffer in different ways, and when this opportunity came up, we thought perhaps there’s a power for good in this somewhere. We’ve felt in the past that we’ve been forced into a box, but there’s more to our story than what’s been told before.”
The Witness. (L to R) Jahsaiah Williams as Alex Hanscombe, Jordan Bolger as André Hanscombe, in The Witness. Cr. Courtesy of Ana Blumenkron/Netflix © 2026
Bringing a story as powerful and heartbreaking as this to television is a tough challenge in itself, but the Netflix team also had to ensure that they serialised it with sincerity. According to André, the team were overwhelmingly accommodating and willing to listen and adapt. “Rob, John, Sarah [Brown, executive producer] and Andy [script assistant], were kind enough to go over every line with us, which wasn’t a walk in the park for them,” he said. “We will never forget that. The drama’s not a home video, and they had to condense thirty-odd years into a small space of time, which is a challenge.”
“It’s a privilege to have anyone interested in our story, and wanting to help us, but this has clearly been much more than just a job for everyone that’s been a part of it,” Alex added. “From the beginning they were incredibly kind in allowing us to share with them everything that was on our mind, and we met and spoke regularly from then until the end, helping with anything we could.”
The Witness and its companion documentary The Murder of Rachel Nickell land on Netflix on June 4, 2026.
