This two-parter is a mesmerising feat of rigorous documentary-making. For the first time, the unnamed Metropolitan police officer who shot and killed Jean Charles de Menezes speaks out publicly, giving a raw and detailed interview about what happened on the morning of 22 July, 2005, and in the years that followed. De Menezes was an electrician from Brazil, taking the London Underground to work from Stockwell station. An innocent man, he was wrongly suspected of being a suicide bomber. He was shot once in the shoulder and seven times in the head.
Over two gripping episodes, this documentary lays the foundations for its story and then unpicks every aspect of it, examining each element carefully, critically and with compassion, from a distance of 20 years later. Part one is all atmosphere, eerily recreating what ITV News producer Neil Garrett calls “a febrile time” in the city. London was still celebrating the decision to award it the 2012 Olympic Games when, on 7 July, four suicide bombers detonated explosives on the transport system, killing 52 and injuring more than 700 people.
