The Fall: Skydive Murder Plot (Ch4)
The biggest problem for true-crime shows lies in conveying the extraordinary drama of a murder plot without sacrificing the factual detail.
Many of the best dramatisations, such as the account of 1985’s Bamber family killings, White House Farm, both grip and inform us. But too often, a telltale caption at the outset of a true-life drama warns that conversations have been ‘reconstructed’ (that is, made up), events have been compressed and, sometimes, characters have been invented ‘for the purposes of the story’.
This can leave viewers unable to separate fiction from reality . . . and in extreme cases, have a significant impact on the lives of people depicted. Fiona Harvey, the woman who claims the Net-flix crime drama Baby Reindeer is based on her, is now suing the video streaming service for $170 million (£133m) over alleged defamation and emotional distress.
The biggest problem for true-crime shows lies in conveying the extraordinary drama of a murder plot without sacrificing the factual detail. Pictured: Victoria Cilliers
Many of the best dramatisations, such as the account of 1985’s Bamber family killings, White House Farm, both grip and inform us. Pictured: Victoria Cilliers
On the other hand, a documentary that relies solely on interviews with retired detectives and audio clips from police interviews can make the most shocking case seem workaday and mundane.
Guy King, director of The Fall: Skydive Murder Plot, takes an innovative approach, with overlapping elements of both methods. The result is sometimes mannered, even bordering on arty — but never less than absorbing.
The first of three nightly episodes opened like a scripted drama, with MyAnna Buring as Victoria Cilliers, whose husband, Emile, tried to kill her by sabotaging her parachute before a 4,000ft jump at Netheravon, Wiltshire.
Victoria suffered serious injuries but, after plummeting to earth and landing in a ploughed field, she survived and was able to talk to the police within days.
We met the detectives who investigated the case, DI Paul Franklin and DC Maddy Hennah — and then the actors playing them in the reconstructions, Rick Romero and Melanie Gutteridge.
In some scenes, such as the fraught first interview with Victoria (who initially could not believe her husband would dream of hurting her), the real cops stood on the edge of the studio set during filming, as though they were watching a memory.
In others, the camera followed actor Neil Bishop as Emile, walking through the backstage corridors past crew members, and straight into the reconstruction. Bishop let us see the vanity of the killer, as he did press-ups in a police interview room and admired his own biceps in the one-way mirror . . . oblivious to the officers studying him on the other side of the glass.
The first of three nightly episodes opened like a scripted drama, with MyAnna Buring as Victoria Cilliers (pictured), whose husband, Emile, tried to kill her by sabotaging her parachute before a 4,000ft jump at Netheravon, Wiltshire
Buring, whose exceptional range as an actress was showcased last month in The Responder, was devastating as Victoria, coming to terms for the first time with her husband’s hidden evil.
All this meant we never forgot we were looking at a retelling, an interpretation of actual events — but one that was approved by those involved. To emphasise this, Victoria herself sat down in front of the lens at the end of the first hour, ready to give her own testimony in tonight’s second episode. That’s quite the cliff-hanger.
