The White House Farm Murders

22 December, 1993 | By Tony Purnell

Diane Keen came close to murder when she stepped in to take a crucial role in tonight’s Crime Story. She insisted on meeting the character she plays in The White House Farm Murders (ITV, 9pm) and found herself at the scene of one of the most chilling and brutal mass killings the nation has known.

“Jeremy Bamber murdered his parents, his sister and his young twin nephews,’’ she says, “and he almost got away with it. His sister had a history of mental problems and for a time the police were happy to accept Jeremy’s version - that she had gone crazy, killed four people and then shot herself. But the family wasn’t convinced. The character I play - Jeremy Bamber’s cousin, Ann Eaton - was particularly determined that justice should be done. She was like a Jack Russell. She just refused to let go.”

Diane read all the transcripts of the trial and then decided she must see Ann. “It’s very difficult playing someone who is a real live person if you’ve never met,’’ she says. “Although the family was very much against the TV dramatisation, they agreed to meet me. I think they believed that we wanted to tell the story honestly and responsibly. Ann lives in the house where the murders took place. They moved in to keep the tenancy of the family farms. I was very apprehensive, but Ann is an upfront, straightforward lady. I felt she was a lot like me, and she was an enormous help.”

“I found it quite chilling going into the house where five people were killed. I sat on the chair in the kitchen next to the Aga where Mr Bamber’s brutally battered body was found. The light in the kitchen still has no lampshade. It was smashed in the struggle in which Jeremy’s father was killed. Ann just said it was an unusual antique shade that is hard to replace. The family found the silencer which helped to prove Jeremy’s guilt after the police had missed it. The police also allowed a lot of other evidence to be destroyed and the bodies to be cremated. But inside the house there was no bad atmosphere. It’s a very happy house in spite of what happened there. They are a very down-to-earth family who feel very let down by the police.”

© The Mirror, 1993