User reviews

This documentary was very disappointing. Firstly, it could've been 2 episodes or even just 1 long one. They spent so much time discussing things not related to the actual case and the way they kept circulating back on the story rather than continuing to move forward was excruciating. Everyone interviewed was so dull and crusty (except the defence lawyer) so again made the story very dry and move even slower. By the time I could tell there was going to be no resolution to the story it was too late and I was too far in. I hate to say it but this was very dull to watch. Even with no real resolution I'm not left wanting more.

I'm not sure if the investigation itself was this bad, or the way the documentarians put together and edited this documentary makes the investigators look foolish. Were they trying to put together a lengthy series, but not having enough information, they put in every needless detail they could find? It's difficult to understand the timeline of when events happened or when certain individuals/groups became suspects or were eliminated. Then, in the middle of the second episode, we start going back into retrospective of who Jill Dando was and why she was loved. Didn't we already learn that at the beginning?

But then, when a newcomer looks into it things, there seems to be common sense used to discover connections. So is it a bad documentary, or actually a reflection on how poorly this investigation was done. They would provide details of evidence, and then make claims as to why somebody was a suspect, even though it doesn't correlate with the evidence . Nothing added up, but is it just bad footage, questioning, or editing?

Just felt frustrated watching it, not intrigued like I usually would be while watching a crime documentary...

Another documentary drawn out in Netflix's typical style these days. I agree with the prior comment about whether it was an average investigation or average documentary. I'm going to go with both.

This doco offered no depth in area nor canvassed possible hypotheses to any meaningful extent. It was merely a retrospective of the investigation and honestly, it isn't worth a watch unless you're on a plane or similar with three hours to kill.

When you recall these events and see there's a doco, you have hope maybe new leads might come if it. I cannot see that happening as a result of this documentary and thus for me it's another example of Netflix cashing in.

I'm Canadian and I have been to the United Kingdom once. For the most part it was a pleasant visit, apart from one immigration officer who seemed certain that I was about to work illegally in his beautiful country, which was strange because I was only there to visit as a tourist for a literal weekend. One thing that struck me is how similar the two countries are, Canada, United Kingdom, and yet how vastly different they are. There's the same fast food restaurants and people somewhat speak the same language, but the mentality is quite different and things that are famous internationally are not necessarily the things that people in those countries care about the most. The case of Jill Dando is a good example of this. The documentary makes a comparison between her and lady Diana. In Canada knows who Lady Di was, I doubt many people would have heard about Jill Dando and her case. The documentary does a good job of explaining the basic facts of the case, and you get the feeling that it was not created merely to be some sort of venue for sordid true crime, so as a way to try and bring the case to a resolution. I am struck by the fact that this is yet another case that was widely talked about in the media and because of that attention and focus, the true killer was allowed to get away with it.

This is a wonderful documentary on such a very sad case. I remember hearing about it but not know much about it at the time. However, there were so many holes left in the documentary that really left the viewer wondering what had happened. Especially with regards to the lifestyle of the accused, it never seem to go into more depth and tell us about what happened or even tried to explain his mental state and why he acted the way that he did. Hopefully this will kick start the police to open the investigation again, but after all this time, is it likely that we're gonna find the true answer? Worth a watch if you like true crime.

I love watching documentaries, especially those that focus their story on the murders of John F. Kennedy and Princess Diana. I also happened to like the Who Killed Jill Dando? Documentary; produced by Netflix, which had immediately caught my eye when loading up the streaming channel. But how good was it?

It was professionally made and filmed on a decent budget; so no issues there. I'm grateful that in the first episode they focused on how much Jill Dando was loved and missed, but I feel as though they had focused too much on on that and therefore; as other critics have mentioned, became longwinded.

I applaud the producers for ensuring the stories about all suspects were covered in this documentary and for including QC Michael Mansfield. But like others have said, there was no need to have the documentary go on for so long as most of the information was repetitive; and at times, a little boring. It is definitely worth a watch though as I learned quite a lot more than I previously did.

The question in the title of this new three-part Netflix series is of course rhetorical as currently no-one is serving a jail sentence for the cold-blooded murder back in 2000 of British TV's golden-girl of the time, presenter Jill Dando. Miss Dando had everything going for her, a ubiquitous television presence, winner of broadcasting awards and in her personal life, happily engaged to be married in the near future.

Brutally killed with a single shot to the head outside the door of her London home, the nation was stunned at the callousness of her execution-like death, the more so when considering that she was one of the co-presenters on the top-rating true-crime public-participation programme "Crimewatch".

Over three episodes, we're dropped straight into the mystery, with a little time also allowed to document her rise to fame and for family and friends to speak warmly of her.

Different theories were propounded by the police, fuelled by the press, with rumours of an underworld contract on her life due to her crime exposés or a politically-motivated assassination by a Serbian hitman because she had recently broadcast an appeal for aid for the people of wartorn Sarajevo.

Eventually the police thought they'd got their man in the person of the intellectuallly-challenged and decidedly odd Barry Bulsara. A failed stuntman amongst many other things, who lived in abject squalor not far from Dando's house. He seemed to have an unhealthy stalking habit of unsuspecting females in his neighbourhood and was infamously pictured wearing a gas'mask and toting a gun which looked suspiciously like the murder weapon.

Put on trial on what appeared to many outside the police investigation to be largely circumstancial evidence, he was nonetheless convicted and given a life sentence before eight years later he was acquitted on appeal, leaving the mystery unsolved today.

Similarities are drawn between Miss Dando and Princess Diana who was killed not long before her and there's little doubt that the former's death and of course the manner of it had a comparable impact on the British public.

This programme I thought was presented in a rather flashy, sensationalist manner with sharp edits, dramatic backing music and overlapping interview inserts treating the case almost like some latter-day small-screen fictional thriller. Personally I'd have preferred if a more sober, documentary-style approach had been taken. It gets a bit silly though when they interview a professional ex-criminal in what looks like a pub who dubiously floats the idea of a gangland hit and then refuses to elaborate on it. Earlier we'd seen her current fiance, her former BBC boss and ex-lover and rather spivvy manager all paraded but quickly discounted as possible suspects.

Thx conclusion the programme appears to reach is that since Bulsara's release the police look to have scaled back their investigation with the senior investigating officer at the time still adamant today that he believed they'd got their man. Against that, an obviously still-damaged Bulsara himself is shown in a series of presrnt-day interviews, strongly defending himself. Significantly, Dando's own brother won't be drawn on his own views.

Like I said earlier, I'm not sure the very modernist presentation served the serious subject matter well, but nevertheless it is hoped that just airing such a high-profile series as this might yet help bring out the truth behind this baffling and still unsolved crime.

STAR RATING: ***** Brilliant **** Very Good *** Okay ** Poor * Awful

Jill Dando rose from humble beginnings in Weston super-mare to becoming the presenter of Crimewatch, the BBC's flagship crime reporting programme, and becoming a household name. However, it all came to a shuddering end in April 1999, when she was brutally gunned down on her doorstep, prompting a massive police investigation and massive speculation over who was behind it. Eventually, a suspect, Barry George was arrested and charged, before eventually being convicted, then sensationally exonerated after contradictory evidence emerged, leaving the case unsolved in the aftermath.

In April 1999, less than two years after the dust had started to settle over Princess Diana's death, the public consciousness was dealt another blow when Jill Dando, who bore a striking similarity to the late princess died in similarly shocking circumstances, albeit with an apparent air of criminality about it. What followed was a sensational series of events, worthy of a TV drama, and even more unbelievable than the actual event itself, but sadly left a family without any justice. Director Marcus Plowright here resurrects the prominent cold case, and does his part in keeping it in everyone's mind.

Dando was not only successful, but evidently well liked, and yet Plowright does not expand in any scope or depth on the devastating emotional impact her murder left on colleagues, friends or family, even with these people involved in the production, instead forensically focusing on the police investigation, from the Serbian links involving the ongoing Kosovan war at the time, to the shaky police pursuit of George, focusing more on his eccentricity rather than anything truly solid, resulting in an unusually succinct three part Netflix production.

Nearly a quarter of a century on, it's staggering that such a high profile case still remains unsolved, and that such a shambolic original investigation went without much in the way of reprimand. It inevitably led to a flurry of conspiracy theories (most notably a Jimmy Savile related one), which is one of many things this potentially interesting documentary could have gone into in more depth. ***

Jill Dando was everywhere in 1990s Britain. She was charming, likeable and her death was beyond shocking.

This documentary does well to keep Jill in the story, splicing clips of her throughout the three parts. Oddly, Jill comes across the most alive person. Everyone else seems so flat. It makes for a frustrating documentary. Information is sparse, and no hard questions are being asked, especially of the police, regarding the slow pace of investigation and some big mis-steps (cctv from local buses, for one, which even the tabloid hacks figured out). Sranger still is the appearance of a random old blagger who says he knows things. Sure.

Ultimately, it makes for a well-made but empty series.

I don't know if he murdered her or not but classifying him as eccentric or quirky is an insult to the woman who have survived and endured his assaults. These incidents that he had been arrested for and found guilty of were violent and to dismiss the importance of what the survivors have gone through by classifying him as a type of harmless male is a disturbing trend that Netflix clearly is okay with.

In 1983 he served 18 months of a 33 month sentence for a 1982 rape. That's only one incident of MANY.

His record is well publicized so claiming ignorance doesn't pass.

Change your culture towards women and you might have a better outcome with murder investigations.

How many more of these two or three part murder/mystery unsolved documentaries are there going to be, when all they do is inform everything already known with no conclusion at the end (it finishes with two possible scenarios of who murdered Jill).

There is a no doubt it is well produced with interviews from colleagues, friends and family, but is ploddy at best. The 2019 1-hour BBC Documentary is superior, concise and more watchable.

As with the Suzy Lamplugh unsolved disappearance (who coincidentally disappeared from roughly the same area) the Metropolitan Police named their killer with mostly circumstantial evidence, and have wasted time and resources, while not exploring other avenues. The Barry George suspect story is so well know in the UK I'm surprised the producers devoted so much time to it.

The documentary confirms it is yet another unsolved murder embarrassment for the London Met, 24 years old.

I was probably about 15 years old when Jill Dando was murdered. I was certainly familiar with her name, and i remember the murder - but i dont remember enough to have formed an opinion on anything.

This must be one of the worst true crime documentaries i've ever seen! Every aspect of every avenue was not explored. There was no detail about anything! Just nothing. All you got was surface level theories repeated to exhaustion.

I'm not sure if i was supposed to take sides by the end, but the whole thing was so vague i just thought 'obviously no one give a crap'. Except some gangster who says he 'knows' but cant possibly say...sure man, just take the paycheck.

Total waste of time.

What a pointless documentary. Just a rehash of everything that was raked over at the time.

No new theories. No new leads or avenues of investigation.

Stretched out and fairly pointless. No reason to watch it at all to be honest. Not particularly well made either as it jumps around and meanders back & forth.

It was clearly a professional hit. That at least should have enabled the documentary makers to weed out the silly dross. No mention of police revisiting the case to give it a modern DNA techniques overhaul.

Next case for the doc-makers to crack - Who shot J. R.? That would be more entertaining certainly.

It's official, the English police are the worst in the world.

Looking at this documentary I came to the conclusion that the United Kingdom can only be a dictatorship.

The police only acted with the press in mind.

Search warrants were authorized even when there was absolutely nothing against the individuals being investigated.

People were arrested without any evidence.

A person was arrested and considered a suspect just for having an 18mm gun, one of the most common types of weapons in the world.

My guess? She was killed by some Serbian nationalist. It is the possibility presented that makes the most sense.

The truth is that most cases are impossible to solve, especially older ones at a time when people didn't have smartphones, GPS and security cameras weren't so common.