Day of tragedy
JO COX: DEATH OF AN MP BBC2, 9pm
ON June 16 last year, Labour MP Jo Cox jumped out of her car to head to her constituency surgery at a library, when she was brutally murdered by Nazi-obsessed loner Thomas Mair.
A member of her staff, Sandra Major, says: “I saw a man coming towards us and he just shot Jo in the head. Just like that. He didn’t speak a word. Then she fell to the ground and he started stabbing her.”
The attack, in the heat of EU referendum campaigning, shocked the nation, and left a family grieving for the 41-year-old mother of two.
Nearly a year on, and still in the midst of huge political unrest, this poignant documentary tells what happened to Jo through the testimony of those closest to the story.
From the chilling police call from an eyewitness, through to police interviews with Mair as he sat unresponsive and arms folded, it’s a detailed account of that tragic day, as well as a heartfelt tribute from Jo’s friends and family.
Her husband, campaigner Brendan Cox, speaks candidly about receiving the news that his wife had been attacked and thinking, “Just don’t die”.
And there are heartbreaking home videos of Jo with their two young children, as Brendan speaks of having to tell them what happened. He says: “I thought how do I do Jo proud in making sure that the kids are OK?”
With exclusive access to West Yorkshire Police’s murder investigation, including all the CCTV footage, there is a forensic exploration of the terrorist attack – Mair shot Jo three times and stabbed her 13 times.
Mair’s activities beforehand are also retraced in chilling detail (he researched rifles and human anatomy), as police try to understand what drove him to kill a female MP he had never even met.