Overview

In June 2016, 20-year-old Brit Michael Sandford was arrested at a Donald Trump rally, after trying to take a police officer's gun in a bid to shoot the then republican presidential nominee. Michael immediately found himself at the centre of a media storm and at the mercy of America's notoriously harsh justice system. After pleading guilty, he faced years behind bars. But how did a young middle-class boy from suburban Surrey who suffers from Asperger's end up thousands of miles from home? And what drove him to attempt to kill one of the most powerful men in the world? This programme follows Michael's family as they travel to the US for his sentencing, unsure of when they might see him again. Set against the backdrop of Trump's remarkable rise to the White House, the documentary explores Michael's complex past while using exclusive eye witness interviews and never-before-seen archive to piece together the elaborate assassination plot and attempt to find out why he did it.

1. Guy Simmonds

   Director