The upcoming four-part ITV series is based on the unbelievable true story of Hartlepool couple the Darwins, who faked husband John\u2019s death during a supposed canoe accident in 2002.<\/p>\n
Asked if he thought the drama would strike a chord with viewers, the Unforgotten<\/a> writer said: \u201cI hope so. I\u2019m sure many of us have dreamt up extraordinary solutions to our problems and then stepped back from the precipice. The only difference between us and the Darwins, is that they jumped.\u201d<\/p>\n The couple, played in the series by Eddie Marsan and Monica Dolan, faked John\u2019s death as part of a life insurance scam, even lying to their own children. Their eventual discovery, arrest and later prison sentencing in 2008 shocked the nation.<\/p>\n \u201cIn many ways, John Darwin is a relatively easy character to understand (his is the story of a narcissist) but Anne is much more complex, so to try to understand how a mother could have committed such a heinous crime, I decided to place her at the centre of the piece, and then create a device which allowed us to hear her inner monologue, her actual thought processes,\u201d Lang explained.<\/p>\n On why he didn\u2019t downplay the terrible thing Anne did, he added: \u201cWe owed it to the sons, the real victims of John and Anne\u2019s crimes, to be truthful.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t imagine a greater betrayal than a mum telling you your dad is dead when she knows he is actually still alive. Pretending to be grieving for five years, allowing them to grieve for five years \u2013 what would possess a mother to do that? It seems unthinkable to any parent.\u201d<\/p> Read more: <\/strong>The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe true story: What Anne and John Darwin series is based on<\/a><\/p>\n The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe will start 9pm on 17th April on ITV and ITV Hub<\/a>. <\/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: Friday, 08 April 2022 at 12:00 am Screenwriter Chris Lang hopes that ITV\u2019s new factual drama The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe will strike a chord with viewers, suggesting that many will empathise with the \u201cextraordinary solution\u201d that John and Anne Darwin\u00a0took to tackle their debt. The upcoming four-part ITV […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":13590,"template":"","categories":[1,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/04\/the-thief-his-wife-and-the-canoe-writer-on-how-darwins-story-could-happen-to-others-scaled.jpg",2560,1828,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/04\/the-thief-his-wife-and-the-canoe-writer-on-how-darwins-story-could-happen-to-others-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/04\/the-thief-his-wife-and-the-canoe-writer-on-how-darwins-story-could-happen-to-others-300x214.jpg",300,214,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/04\/the-thief-his-wife-and-the-canoe-writer-on-how-darwins-story-could-happen-to-others-768x549.jpg",768,549,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/04\/the-thief-his-wife-and-the-canoe-writer-on-how-darwins-story-could-happen-to-others-1024x731.jpg",800,571,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/04\/the-thief-his-wife-and-the-canoe-writer-on-how-darwins-story-could-happen-to-others-1536x1097.jpg",1536,1097,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/04\/the-thief-his-wife-and-the-canoe-writer-on-how-darwins-story-could-happen-to-others-2048x1463.jpg",2048,1463,true]},"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: Friday, 08 April 2022 at 12:00 am Screenwriter Chris Lang hopes that ITV\u2019s new factual drama The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe will strike a chord with viewers, suggesting that many will empathise with the \u201cextraordinary solution\u201d that John and Anne Darwin\u00a0took to tackle their debt. The upcoming four-part ITV…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/13589"}],"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\/13590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2022\/03\/thief-wife-canoe-anne-darwin-sons-610598a.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C425"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"