Cressida’s big break as tragic model Bambi
SoCIAlITE turned serious actress Cressida Bonas will portray Sheila Caffell, a professional model known as Bambi who was slain along with her parents and twin sons by her brother, in a major television drama.
The role in the six-part ITV series is an important break for Ms Bonas who, for a time, was dismissed as just a former flame of Prince Harry’s.
Bonas, 29, who studied at the london Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and has taken on roles in several off-West End plays, has had to work twice as hard as many other aspiring actresses to prove to producers and casting directors she has the chops to take on top parts.
She will appear opposite Freddie Fox in The White House Farm Murders. As this page revealed last week, Fox has been cast as Jeremy Bamber, the convicted killer who massacred five members of his family in Essex 33 years ago.
Bamber was sentenced to five life terms for murdering his adoptive parents June and Neville Bamber, adoptive sister Sheila, and her six-year- old sons Nicholas and Daniel.
Initially, police suspected that Sheila, who suffered from mental illness, had committed the shootings and then turned a gun on herself. This theory was soon dispelled and the murder squad switched its attention to Bamber.
Each of the episodes written by Kris Mrksa will look at what took place at White House Farm in Tolleshunt D’Arcy from the viewpoint of a different character, including Bamber, Sheila, and her former husband, who will be portrayed by Mark Stanley — so good opposite Ruth Wilson in director Clio Barnard’s film Dark River.