Empress Films for Netflix

Director: Marcus Plowright

Executive Producer: Emma Cooper

Editor: Abraham Teweldebrhan

In 1999 BBC presenter Jill Dando was sadly shot dead outside her home in west London, her murder led to a high profile and complex investigation. A suspect, Barry George was convicted and imprisoned for eight years, but was later acquitted following an appeal and a retrial. After his release, he took libel action against the News of the World and The Sun which suggested he was guilty of murdering Jill in articles published following his acquittal. In 2009, Barry was paid substantial damages by the newspapers after a High Court case.  Jill Dando’s death remains unsolved. This documentary series directed by Marcus Plowright (creator of Fred and Rose West: Reopened) uses archive footage as well as new research and insightful interviews to explore Dando’s life, career, legacy, and her death. It’s the first time a documentary has covered the whole story in terms of everyone involved. It has interviews from the police, media, Jill’s family as well as wrongly accused Barry George and his family.

Abraham edited episode three and said it was probably one of his best editing experiences he’s had. Quite a statement Abraham!

He told us;  “it was tough at the beginning as I was cutting archive and interviews with placeholders as the drama recon hadn’t been shot yet.  The production ended up shooting the drama recons almost identical to the placements I had used and in the end they used music very similar to the guide tracks that I had used too”.

Once the Drama reconstructions were in Abs really enjoyed working with Emma and the team at Empress Films to unfold the story properly. They took the approach of a thriller “ We were telling the tale as if it’s unfolding in real time. This made cutting the interviews really challenging but it all came together really well” Abs also mentioned that he loved having creative freedom, to be able to have the documentary “stay in the moment”  at times of drama.  “One last challenge was Barry George agreeing to be interviewed late on in the process, but Abs explained that it bought so much to the documentary it was well worth it!”

All three episodes of Who Killed Jill Dando? will be released on 26th September on Netflix