The Witness Recap Episode 1: You Lost Her Too

On July 15, 1992, Rachel Nickell went out for a walk with her son Alex, then almost three years old, and never made it home. She was brutally attacked and murdered, with young Alex nearby having witnessed the whole thing. This three-episode Netflix limited series is a dramatisation of what happened afterwards, based on the memoir Letting Go by the now grown-up Alex Hanscombe. Based on the first episode alone, The Witness was shot like a memory, from the point of view of people who had done the work to process the unimaginable. It does not make the story any less devastating, but the storytelling was done with a deft hand and an echo of melancholy, painful, will always be painful, but bearable now. 

There were roughly a hundred people at the park at around the time Rachel was attacked. She and young Alex were happily walking around and playing, until a figure of a man came into view. Then silence. Then sirens. The power of restraint in storytelling was deployed admirably here. 

The devastated André, Rachel’s partner and father to Alex, now had to deal with his own grief whilst being the sole parent to a traumatised kid. His first visit back to their flat was an indictment of British press behaviour; reporters and photographers swarmed him as he got out of the car. This was a man who just found out he lost the love of his life, who needed to go home to get clothing because the police needed his and his son’s clothes for forensics, who was terrified for the safety of his son who was the only witness to Rachel’s murder. The press even offered the neighbours money to get photos inside their flat.

It did not stop there. André and Alex temporarily moved in with André’s mother June, where they experienced a brief period of respite before the press discovered their location. The press not only camped outside, they went through the family bins, stole their mail, rang the door bell at all hours. It was harassment of a grieving family under the guise of reporting. What complicated the relationship was that the police needed information, and for that they needed the press. Despite André’s misgivings, he was convinced to participate in a press conference and read out a statement the police hoped would help with the investigation.

A therapist advised André not to lie to Alex, but it was not entirely clear how much young Alex could comprehend. Almost in desperation, André took Alex with him to identify Rachel’s body, but Alex refused to go inside the room. Instead, he remained on the floor just outside, playing with his toy.

As André quickly figured out, the police needed Alex, and DC Nick Sparshatt and DC Paul Miller spent a lot of time with father and son, playing with Alex, establishing trust, patiently trying to extract whatever information he could provide. It was not until Grandma June went to André and tenderly asked what he needed, that they had a breakthrough. 

What André needed was to say goodbye to Rachel. He wanted to go where she died. At first, he refused to take Alex with him, but the child insisted. Naturally, the press was there, screaming questions, their cameras trained on father and son as they walked to where they lost their beloved. It was young Alex who laid down the rose and confirmed it was where Rachel died.

Later, when Nick and Paul tried to question him again, they finally got details they previously were not able to before – young, White, thin, short hair, blue trousers, brown shoes, carrying a black bag. Alex kept saying Batman, which André eventually figured meant the man had a utility belt on. The police cross referenced this description with earlier statements and found a witness, a doctor’s wife, who spoke of seeing a man in a white shirt, with a bag, and a belt or a strap around his waist.

The witness worked with a sketch artist, and later identified a man named Colin Stagg off a lineup. Colin insisted it was not him, but he matched the partial description, he was identified by the witness, and he matched the profile Professor Britton came up with. DCS Campbell considered showing his photo to Alex, but DCI Mick Wickerson and DI Keith Pedder both said no, Alex was too young. They needed a confession. Colin had been exchanging letters with a woman who claimed the texts later became explicit, even obscene. Keith asked the Professor’s help in designing a covert operation to get the truth out of Colin. The Professor agreed, because he said if Rachel’s murderer was not caught, he would kill again.

As though to confirm this theory, the episode closed with a view from outside of a woman arranging a child’s toys, as though she were being watched.

Part of the episode happened a decade later, in 2002, when the Rachel Nickell case was already a cold case. André still took precautions to avoid the press. When he flew in from Catalonia where he and Alex had been living, he purchased his ticket at the airport so the press would not be pre-warned that he was on his way. He met DS Ivan Agnew, who informed him they were re-opening the case. DNA technology had improved; they tasked an independent firm to re-analyse the samples. They needed André’s help, because they wanted to talk to Alex again.

Alex was now about 13 years old, and was not happy with the prospect of having to speak to the police again. He claimed he had already told them everything he remembered. He did not want to remember his mother for her death. The relationship between father and son was loving but uneasy, and it blew up at a gathering at a neighbour’s house where Alex refused to eat fish, because his mother wanted him to become a vegetarian. When André pushed Alex into just eating it, Alex stood up and held a knife at André’s throat. 

It was a sudden reminder of André’s fears, when he realised his young son did remember the brutal attack on his mother. He worried that they did not know what those memories were doing to him. A decade earlier, with the press intrusion, with kind strangers whose offers of kindness André was not quite certain was helping, with the police having to release their sole suspect due to insufficient evidence, André decided to move Alex somewhere where people did not know who they were, in an effort to give him a normal childhood. Whether or not he succeeded, it was not entirely clear yet. 

I went into this show extremely hesitant, because there were real people involved, real people who suffered unimaginable loss. I finished the first episode more confident that the series creators handled this story with as much sensitivity and grace as could be expected given the heartbreaking nature of the story.   

Rating: A

Strays

🏠Grandma June to André: ‘It’s not just about what Alex needs. You lost her too, André. What do you need?’ This was when your faithful recapper started crying.

🏠The yet to be answered question was why the killer allowed Alex to survive.

🏠There was a man who was seen washing his hands on the stream, who also carried a black bag.

🏠There was a cute scene where toddler Alex stickered the cops, aw.

Episode Writer: Rob Williams

Episode Director: Alex Winckler

Original Release Date: June 4, 2026

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