Helen Archer | On 13, May 2025

This coming July, London will commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 7/7 attacks, which left 52 dead and hundreds injured after four suicide bombers detonated high powered explosives on both train and bus lines. The day will be etched in the memory of many, but less is known about the copycat attacks two weeks later, and about the sole fatality resulting from them – that of Jean Charles de Menezes, a Brazilian electrician mistaken for a bomber and brutally killed by armed police at Stockwell subway station with seven shots to the head.

This four-part dramatisation, written by Jeff Pope and directed by Paul Andrew Williams (who have worked together previously on A Confession), begins with the 7/7 attacks and their aftermath, and the preparations for the failed bombings on 21st July, intercut with scenes of Jean Charles (Edison Alcaide) and his everyday life – his conscientious work had just earned him a promotion, with much of his wage packet sent back to his parents in Brazil, where he hoped to return to in the near future. In the meantime, he roomed with his cousins in the same block of flats as one of the failed bombers. Much of Episode 2 is a detailed account of what led up to the shooting – the chaos of the police surveillance of that block of flats, the bad decisions, the misidentification, and the constant miscommunication between police bosses and their firearms officers. De Menezes’s death, when it comes, is as brutal and shocking as it can be. 

The second half of the series pulls focus on the police and their attempts to avoid accountability, with a plethora of big names depicting some of the more public faces of the chain of command – Conleth Hill as Commissioner Sir Ian Blair (who has since become a Lord), Emily Mortimer as future Commissioner Cressida Dick (who has since become a Dame), Russell Tovey as Deputy Assistant Commissioner Brian Paddick, and Max Beesley as Special Ops Assistant Commissioner Andy Hayman. Up-and-comer James Nelson-Joyce memorably plays one of the police shooters, while Laura Aikman is IPCC whistleblower Lana Vandenberge, who went to the press with the damning evidence of what really happened that day.

By looking at the inquiry into his death in the final episode, writer Pope is also able to communicate the many ways De Menezes’s name was blackened in an attempt to somehow justify his killing. Much was made of ‘eyewitness’ accounts which attested he was wearing a bulky jacket – all the better for concealing a bomb – and jumped over ticket barriers – this was, in fact, the police chasing him, as Jean Charles wore a light denim jacket and boarded normally. Less was made of the 17 actual eyewitnesses on the same tube carriage as Jean Charles, who were unanimous in their assertions that he was shot without warning, directly contradicting the claims of the police.

His alleged ‘twitchiness’ – again contradicted by those on the train, who perceived him as calm and normal before being pounced on – was very publicly put down to a tiny amount of cocaine found in his system. Meanwhile, the tabloids led with accusations of a historic rape, of which DNA eventually proved him innocent. All point towards a coordinated smear campaign. De Menezes’s family attend the inquiry, with other members of the Justice4Jean campaign, which itself had been infiltrated by spycops – and their pain is highlighted latterly, as police mistakes are not even acknowledged, let alone apologised for.

While the series is not perfect – too much time and attention is given to the second terrorist ‘cell’, as they attempt to make their escape, and some of the script is exposition-heavy – it is, nonetheless, serious in its urgency of conveying this grave injustice, fuelled by a perceptible, though controlled, anger – a necessary, long overdue, corrective to a false narrative that has been allowed to fester for the past two decades. It is also testament to the lengths those in charge will go, to protect not only their own personal careers, but also their institutions, in a culture which continues to lack accountability and deny wrongdoing, no matter how egregious or fatal their errors.

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