Stream It Or Skip It? ‘Who Killed Jill Dando?’ On Netflix, A Docuseries About The 1999 Murder Of One Of England’s Most Popular News Presenters

Who Killed Jill Dando?, directed by Marcus Plowright, is a 3-part docuseries that tries to sort out the mystery of the April 26, 1999 murder of Jill Dando, a popular news presenter for the BBC. Almost a quarter-century later, the murder has yet to be solved in any definitive manner, even though a man named Barry George, a known stalker, was arrested and went through two trials before being acquitted in 2008.

WHO KILLED JILL DANDO?: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A shot of Jill Dando putting in her earpiece as an anchor throws to her during a broadcast. She jokes around a bit. “Struggling away, hello,” she smiles as she puts the cord behind her ear.

The Gist: The first episode starts with Dando’s murder, where she was shot in the head at close range right outside her London home. Through interviews with her brother, coworkers, her fiance, and investigators, along with archival and CCTV footage, audiences outside the UK who might not be familiar with Dando find out that she was one of the most popular news presenters in the country, and her death had almost the same impact as Princess Diana’s had two years earlier.

As expected, Scotland Yard was under immense pressure to find out who killed Dando, but evidence was sparse. A 9mm shell was found near her body, but once the CCTV footage fleshed out her movements, it seemed unusual that someone would have known she’d be entering her home at that particular time, unless she was followed. Suspicion landed on her boss, with whom she had a romantic relationship, her fiance, and her agent, but all were eliminated during the investigation. Could it have been someone who was profiled during her series Crimewatch? Was it a stalker? Did it have something to do with the network’s coverage of the Serbian war?

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Who Killed Jill Dando? is a pretty straightforward true crime docuseries, along the lines of Missing: The Lucie Blackman Case.

Our Take: The producers and director of Who Killed Jill Dando? are depending on Dando’s star power and the high profile nature of the case to drive this docuseries’ drama. But, for the most part, it’s presented in a fairly dry, straightforward manner that follows the investigation from point A to point B and so on.

There are a couple of moments of flair in the first episode, like when a hairdresser talks about the image makeover Dando had when she first came on the national scene with the BBC in the late ’80s, adopting the short bob haircut she was known for — and that she had before Diana sported the look. There was also plenty of footage of Jill doing reporting and anchor work, showing how well she connected with audiences and why she was one of Britain’s most popular news personalities.

Given the nature of how this case played out, it does feel that the series is going to be as speculative as it will be fact-finding. There does seem to be a connection between her murder and another news presenter’s murder that was in retaliation for a NATO bombing in Serbia. But that was something that wasn’t revealed until 2019, 20 years after the murder scandalized the UK.

What twists and turns is this show going to take in its 137-minute runtime? Probably not many that people familiar with the case won’t already know, and its straightforward manner makes us think that even those of us not familiar with the case will have to sit through investigators’ thought process, the George arrest and trial, and then the revelations about the Serbian connection, and still not a definitive answer.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: News of a threatening letter and call from a Serbian claiming responsibility for Dando’s death is played.

Sleeper Star: John Roseman, Dando’s agent, has quite the personality, and it seemed that he came under suspicion simply because he wrote a novel about the murder of a news presenter.

Most Pilot-y Line: The first episode is full of reenactments that, while not badly done, seem unnecessary.

Our Call: STREAM IT. While its narrative structure is as dry as a bone, Who Killed Jill Dando? carries a lot of intrigue, simply because of how famous the case is and how wildly speculative the investigation got.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.