In Search of the Rainbow's End: Inside the White House Farm Murders

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On Wednesday, in White House Farm, an ITV six-part factual drama starring Freddie Fox as Jeremy Bamber and Cressida Bonas as an eerily accurate Sheila, viewers can make their own decision. When I met the writer Kris Mrska and executive producer, Willow Grylls, I was very impressed. I felt safe with them. I felt very listened to. That’s why I got involved because I wanted to help them get the story right.” The Sun recently reported 56-year-old Julie Mugford was living in Winnipeg, Canada with her husband, Glen Smerchanski. Speaking to ITV, Stanley said: “Colin understands there has to be a licence to fit this story into a six-part drama. Between August and September, Mugford questioned Bamber’s involvement in the murders and she told police Bamber had said he had gotten a mercenary to kill the family.

In White House Farm, Mark Stanley plays Colin, capturing Caffell’s gentleness, the deep impact of his loss and Bamber’s betrayal. “He looks nothing like me but he got it,” Caffell says. Stan was the guy who said, ‘Wait. Hang on a minute. We shouldn’t be doing this. There should be a proper forensic investigation. His way has included training as a psychotherapist, working with the late Elizabeth Kübler-Ross, an expert on loss and dying, working in prisons and conducting workshops for men and for teenage survivors of the war in Bosnia. Ann, alongside members of the police, began to suspect the Bamber may have been behind the killings.Colin studied with a number of renowned teachers including Colin Pearson, Ian Godfrey and Ewen Henderson. MORE: 'My personal opinion is very much that he's guilty' - author Carol Ann LeeColin added Sheila was a "kind and loving" mother to the twins. Following the tragic events of August 7, the police initially believed Sheila Caffell had committed a murder-suicide. He also got in touch after he watched it all to say. ‘You’ve played it as I wanted it - and how I felt I was. Which is that I survived it.’” Sheila Caffell, in her modelling days. She and her twin sons were murdered. Photograph: David Thorpe/REX

Speaking to ITV, Caffell said: “I’ve been approached numerous times by all sorts of production companies, journalists and writers. But this was the first time I had been approached with real respect and sensitivity. On 28 October 1986, Jeremy Bamber, 25, was convicted of five counts of murder. The judge, Sir Maurice Drake, said Bamber was “evil almost beyond belief”. Bamber, serving a full-life tariff, claims he is innocent and has repeatedly appealed. “I believe Bamber is now so entrenched in a fantasy world, nothing in him will change,” Colin Caffell says: “Sheila didn’t know how to load or fire a rifle. I’ve always completely trusted the verdict.” Her testimony was vital to the prosecution case and she testified in court against him in October 1986. Their father, Colin Caffell, had divorced Sheila and for several months had been the twins’ full-time carer. In his book, In Search of the Rainbow’s End, published in 1994, and republished this week with additional chapters, Caffell, 66, recalls how Daniel once stabbed a finger at the sky and said: “I think granny is too much in love with Him up there.” Colin is a potter and sculptor who originally trained in Ceramics and 3D Design at Camberwell School of Art.

Amanda Burton as June Bamber

Colin Caffell (Mark Stanley) was the former husband of Sheila Caffell and the father of their two sons, Nicholas and Daniel. Sheila’s brother Jeremy Bamber is currently serving a life sentence for the killings. He has denied any part in the murders. He ran his own pottery in London for a number of years before being drawn to the less abstract world of figurative sculpture. Jeremy Bamber being driven away from court to start a life sentence for the murder of his family. Photograph: REX

Thirty-five years after the murders, Caffell has acted as an adviser on the TV drama and allowed his book to inform it for the first time. “One reason is to restore Sheila’s reputation,” he says. “Another is to offer hope. I’ve known many families who have been through trauma and they are destroying themselves. It’s so sad, I wasn’t going to let that happen to me. It is possible to find a way.” He added: “I also had a lovely long chat with Mark Stanley, who plays me. It is very strange to see yourself being played. He looks nothing like me, but he got it. I was very moved by how he has portrayed things.

Who is Colin Caffell?

On my visit to the village, at the Thatcher’s Arms, one local told me: “The day after it happened a lot of people in the village knew the police had it wrong for one reason only: common sense.” One month after the murders at White House Farm, 21-year-old Mugford went to police with a second statement. verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{