ITV commissions film on trial of Louise Woodward

By Neil Wilkes, Editor-in-chief | 2d

ITV commissions a film about the trial of Louise Woodward, 25 years after it became the biggest story on both sides of the Atlantic.

ITV has commissioned a one-off film to mark 25 years since the trial of Louise Woodward.

The 1997 trial saw Woodward, a 19-year-old British nanny working in the US, charged with the murder of an eight-month-old boy in her care.

The court proceedings attracted huge interest on both sides of the Atlantic and were broadcast live on rolling news channels over many weeks.

In The Trial of Louise Woodward, ITV plans to retrace the key steps of the trial - including its shock verdict and aftermath - with interviews from the key actors in the case, as well as modern forensic takes on evidence presented at the trial.

"The trial of Louise Woodward made a unique impact and is still vividly remembered now, decades later," said Tom Giles, ITV's controller of current affairs.

"This film, with its close access to the key figures involved in the case, promises to deliver an eye-opening insight into the pressures bearing down on proceedings to tell us how and why it played out as it did and how its conclusion is a continuing source of division."

Executive producer Sanjay Singhal added: "Like millions of others, I remember being gripped by the daily twists and turns of the extraordinary court case as it was headline news every night.

"I'd like to try to show what it must have been like to go through that for both sides: a young British woman at the centre of a legal storm – and the bereaved parents who felt that justice was not done because of a scientific argument that continues to this day."

The piece is expected to air in 2022.