ITV orders New Pictures murder series

White House Farm is based on a real murder case from 1985

UK commercial broadcaster ITV has commissioned a six-part factual drama based on the real-life murder of a British family in the 1980s.

Produced by London-based New Pictures, the prodco behind BBC drama The Missing, White House Farm centres on the murder of Sheila Caffell, her six-year-old twin sons and her parents Nevill and June Bamber at their Essex farmhouse in 1985.

ITV said the series seeks to provide fresh insight into the murders and the contested accounts of the events that took place, using research and material from interviews and published accounts.

White House Farm is written by Kris Mrksa and Guila Sandler and directed by Paul Whittington. Exec producing are Mrksa, Willow Grylls, Charlie Pattinson and Elaine Pyke, with Lee Thomas producing.

All3Media International is distributing the series globally.

“This notorious case has been the subject of much debate and our programme focuses on the impact of the human tragedy,” Grylls said.

Mrksa added: “This is an incredibly compelling true crime story, but it’s the human dimension of these events that gripped my imagination. So much discussion of the case has focused on contested legal details but I wanted to tell this story in a way that did justice to the devastating emotional truth of what happened.”