The Witness – Review | Netflix Series

THE WITNESS on Netflix is a series covering the same true crime case as featured in The Murder of Rachel Nickell. That documentary feature is released alongside this one. Each production is worth watching, and I recommend that you watch both. Read our The Witness series review here!

THE WITNESS is a Netflix series about the murder of Rachel Nickell. In other words, it’s based on a true crime, and that case is also covered in a Netflix documentary feature film. This limited series and the documentary feature are released on the same day.

Essentially, these two releases are one another’s companion pieces. I highly recommend that you watch both. However, if you only watch one of them, I would go for the documentary. As a rule, I think true crime should also be the facts first and then (possibly) fiction later.

Continue reading our The Witness series review below. Find all three episodes on Netflix on June 4, 2026.

What did Alex witness?

With the 3-part series The Witness, we follow the lives of Alex and André Hanscombe. The son and father were hit by a tragedy of unbearable proportions when Rachel Nickell was murdered.

While the Netflix documentary focuses on that case as well, the two diverge in key ways. The documentary focuses on both the family and police, while this series is about their lives after the tragedy, specifically.

When Rachel Nickell was murdered in 1992, on Wimbledon Common, André became a single parent. However, he was never given much time to grieve the loss of his beloved Rachel, as his 2-year-old son, Alex, was the only witness to the crime.

Having just watched the documentary, it’s heartwrenching to watch this mini-series. But also important as the real-life investigation was so flawed.

Welfare over continued trauma

With no time to spare, as this is now a murder investigation, we see André with two urgent jobs; Trying to get information out of Alex while also securing his son’s recovery from the immense trauma. Those two things are not compatible.

As we see André getting pushed by the increasingly desperate police investigation, he makes a decision: The welfare and happiness of Alex must come first!

He leaves the UK, and in this series, we follow André and Alex in a way that the documentary couldn’t. Obviously, this is fiction and dramatized, but if you’ve watched the documentary, then it seems they’ve done their best not to wander too far off.

They certainly managed to cast actors who look eerily similar to the real-life Alex and André. The core cast of the series includes Jordan Bolger, Max Fincham (Alienist), Neil Maskell (Hijack), Jon Pointing (Run Away), Kevin Eldon (3 Body Problem), and James Dryden. Among many others, obviously.

Watch The Witness mini-series on Netflix now

The Witness comes from writer, executive producer, and showrunner Rob Williams. Previously, Rob Williams created the Apple TV show Suspicion starring Uma Thurman. He has also written an episode of Killing Eve and five episodes of The Man in the High Castle. Two series I have absolutely adored.

Director on the three episodes is Alex Winckler, and even if you haven’t watched the documentary (which, again, you ought to), this series captures the tragedy very well. One thing is the fact that the murder itself was brutal and traumatizing, but the police investigation was downright abysmal.

Both of these elements are covered extremely well in the mini-series, and you can see how they’ve used home videos (and other videos featured in the documentary) to hit as close to the truth as possible. I appreciate that immensely, as I can only imagine those who love and miss Rachel Nickell will.

The Witness is out on Netflix globally on June 4, 2026.

Details

Showrunner: Rob Williams 
Cast: Jordan Bolger, Max Fincham, Neil Maskell, Kevin Eldon, Mark Stanley, Jon Pointing, James Dryden, Kerry Godliman, James Bradshaw, Claire Rushbrook