Danielle Cable: Eyewitness (ITV1) FOR most, I suspect, the incident that became known as the M25 road rage murder will ring a few bells without any of us being able to go into detail about the case.

The basic facts will be recalled - a young man was stabbed to death by an angry motorist in front of his young fiancee, but not much more.

As the title suggested, Danielle Cable: Eyewitness was not so much about the crime itself as the life-changing aftermath on the witness to this bloody murder seven years ago. She not only saw her boyfriend killed but had to go into hiding in fear of her life. Today, Danielle is still under the Witness Protection Scheme, living a new life away from family and friends under a new name.

The two-hour film inhabited the shadowy world known as factual drama - not quite a TV movie and not quite a documentary. It wasn't so much concerned with the crime, although the work of the police and courts in the case was shown, but the "punishment" suffered by Danielle herself as she was forced to forget her old life.

She worked closely with the makers on this programme, and it showed in the little details as she disappeared away from home to a "new job, new home, new you". Every change in her private life had to be notified to her carers. Break the rules of the contract, her protectors told her, and she'd be chucked off the scheme.

Boyfriend Stephen Cameron hadn't been killed by just anyone, but Kenneth Noye, a violent criminal who was willing to do anything to avoid going to prison. Two years after the stabbing, he was traced to Spain and Danielle, having put her life back in some order, had to relive the whole thing and travel abroad to identify him.

As the only eyewitness, Danielle became a prime target. Police feared Noye would use his underworld connections to have her silenced. She had to have protection both before and after the trial, at which Noye claimed self-defence.

Joanne Froggatt, who seems to make a living out of playing suffering young women, spent much of the time either in tears or with a look of steely determination to ensure that her boyfriend's killer didn't escape justice. Her emotionally charged performance, together with Lindsay Coulson as the mother she left behind and Bill Paterson's world-weary policeman, helped raise this above the usual drama-documentary.

For Danielle, of course, the story is never over - she can never return to her old life.

Published: 15/04/2003