On the morning of April 26, 1999, as revisited in the new documentary series Who Killed Jill Dando?, the 37-year-old British broadcasting star was killed by a single bullet on her London doorstep, launching one of the largest homicide investigations in the history of the UK. Directed by four-time BAFTA nominee Marcus Plowright (Muslim Drag Queens, Fred and Rose West: Reopened) and executive produced by Emma Cooper (The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes), Who Killed Jill Dando? revisits the still unsolved case with fresh eyes. Dando’s brother, Nigel Dando, who was also a journalist and is interviewed in the series, hopes its release will lead to new information about the murder of his sister. As he told The Times earlier this year, “Someone might know something.”
A newscaster and host of the BBC’s Crimewatch and other programs, Dando was one of the most beloved figures in television, who bore a striking resemblance to Princess Diana in both her appearance and her charismatic way with the public. As one of the hundreds of people who lined the streets to watch Dando’s funeral procession said at the time: “Diana was our rose, but Jill was our sunflower.”
Who Killed Jill Dando? begins with a panicked recording: the voice of a passerby discovering a woman collapsed and bleeding on a doorstep in Fulham, London. “Confidentially, it looks like it’s Jill Dando,” the caller says. And a moment later: “Oh my god, no, I don’t think she’s alive.”
Over three episodes, Who Killed Jill Dando? retraces the journalist’s steps before that morning. The series also looks back at Dando’s rise in television, showing those close to her, including her brother, Nigel; her fiancé at the time of her death, gynecologist Alan Farthing; and her BBC colleagues, who had to deliver the breaking news announcement of her death. Even her hairdresser speaks to her royal-worthy appeal (“Who had the haircut first?” an interviewer asks off-camera, prompting the instantaneous reply: “Jill.”)
Who Killed Jill Dando? also follows the massive investigation that unfolded in the wake of her killing. Lead investigator Hamish Campbell and numerous journalists who covered the inquiry describe the process of speaking to 4,000 people and combing through hundreds of hours of CCTV footage. The series retraces the process of chasing down countless tips and leads, ranging from a colorful undertaker gathering wood for coffins nearby, to the sightings of a suspicious-looking “sweating man” at a bus stop — and a blue Range Rover lurking around Dando’s street and fleeing at high speed.
A man named Barry George, who once notoriously injured himself publicly attempting a daredevil stunt, had a habit of borrowing the names of rock stars, and was alleged to have roamed the streets taking pictures of random women, was found guilty of the murder. But his conviction was eventually thrown out on grounds of faulty gunshot residue evidence and he was freed after eight years of incarceration.
Who Killed Jill Dando? is available to stream on Netflix now.
