<\/p>
Unforgotten creator Chris Lang has revealed he approached convicted fraudsters John and Anne Darwin ahead of his upcoming ITV drama about the couple, but that they \u201cdidn\u2019t want to get involved\u201d in the project.<\/p>\n
The ITV true crime drama series, titled The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe<\/a>, stars Eddie Marsan and Monica Dolan as the Darwins, who conspired to fake John\u2019s death as part of a life insurance scam.<\/p>\n The upcoming four-part ITV series is inspired by an unpublished manuscript penned by David Leigh, the journalist who first found Anne when she was living in Panama, where the couple moved following their 2002 insurance scam.<\/p>\n Speaking at a press event attended by RadioTimes.com<\/a>, Lang was asked whether he had spoken to either John or Anne Darwin ahead of making the series.<\/p>\n \u201cNo, not direct contact, we approached them all. And none of them were interested in discussing or collaborating on the project,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cDavid Leigh, who was the journalist who broke the story\u2026 does still speak with Anne and has a good relationship with her. So, you know, I think [he] hopefully has been able to reassure her that it is as sympathetic a telling of her story as is possible, given what she did.<\/p>\n \u201cBut no, they didn\u2019t want to get involved. You know, they have told their story a lot in public, obviously\u2026 Yeah, none of them wanted to.\u201d<\/p> On being cast as John, Eddie\u00a0Marsan previously said: \u201cI\u2019m so thrilled to be working with Chris Lang, one of our greatest writers, and to get the chance to work with Monica Dolan. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe story of how and why John Darwin faked his own death to defraud insurance companies is fascinating, and if it weren\u2019t fact, you\u2019d think it unbelievable.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t pretend to understand what was going on in his head when he made those choices, but I\u2019m going to do my absolute best to portray him, and I can\u2019t wait to get started.\u201d<\/p>\n Monica Dolan added: \u201cThe Thief, His Wife and the Canoe tells the story of surely the most outrageous fraud of modern times \u2013 and my favourite kind of drama is when the outrageous comes from the prosaic.<\/p>\n \u201cAs breathtaking as their managing to pull this deception off in the first place, is how spectacularly the couple wrecked it for themselves as soon as they had got away with it.\u201d<\/p>\n Additional reporting by Helen Daly.<\/em><\/p>\n The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe will air soon on ITV. <\/strong>If you\u2019re looking for more to watch, take a look at the rest of our\u00a0Drama<\/a>\u00a0coverage, or check out our<\/strong> TV Guide<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n The latest issue of Radio Times is on sale now \u2013\u00a0subscribe now<\/a>\u00a0to get each issue delivered to your door. For more from the biggest stars in TV, l<\/strong>isten to the\u00a0Radio Times podcast<\/a>\u00a0with Jane Garvey.<\/strong><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n By Flora Carr Published: Wednesday, 23 March 2022 at 12:00 am Unforgotten creator Chris Lang has revealed he approached convicted fraudsters John and Anne Darwin ahead of his upcoming ITV drama about the couple, but that they \u201cdidn\u2019t want to get involved\u201d in the project. The ITV true crime drama series, titled The Thief, His […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":12691,"template":"","categories":[5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/03\/anne-and-john-darwin-didnt-want-to-get-involved-with-new-itv-drama.jpg",620,413,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/03\/anne-and-john-darwin-didnt-want-to-get-involved-with-new-itv-drama-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/03\/anne-and-john-darwin-didnt-want-to-get-involved-with-new-itv-drama-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/03\/anne-and-john-darwin-didnt-want-to-get-involved-with-new-itv-drama.jpg",620,413,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/03\/anne-and-john-darwin-didnt-want-to-get-involved-with-new-itv-drama.jpg",620,413,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/03\/anne-and-john-darwin-didnt-want-to-get-involved-with-new-itv-drama.jpg",620,413,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/03\/anne-and-john-darwin-didnt-want-to-get-involved-with-new-itv-drama.jpg",620,413,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Flora Carr Published: Wednesday, 23 March 2022 at 12:00 am Unforgotten creator Chris Lang has revealed he approached convicted fraudsters John and Anne Darwin ahead of his upcoming ITV drama about the couple, but that they \u201cdidn\u2019t want to get involved\u201d in the project. The ITV true crime drama series, titled The Thief, His…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/12690"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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