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Eddie Marsan is probably the least-celebrity celebrity you could ever meet. He tells me over a very enjoyable and relaxed Zoom chat that he likes playing roles that are far away from who he actually is, and he\u2019s very good at it. His latest? Hartlepool fraudster John Darwin in Chris Lang\u2019s The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe<\/a>.<\/p>\n The four-parter details John\u2019s bizarre plot to fake his own death in order to claim life insurance money which would have to be obtained by his wife, Anne. John pretended to get lost at sea, but was in reality living next door in a bedsit owned by the couple.<\/p>\n They were seemingly successful, and moved to Panama years later where they planned to live out their days together \u2013 but a change in visa laws meant they had to fly back to the UK, where John planned on handing himself in, claiming amnesia. The police uncovered the whole story and they were eventually found guilty of fraud and served time in prison.<\/p>\n The story is set around Hartlepool, more specifically Seaton Carew, and anyone with local knowledge (as this Teesside writer with a very loud and proud accent does) will know the accent is not an easy one to replicate. But Marsan, despite hailing from Stepney, London, manages to pick it up quite well.<\/p> We decide to get the elephant in the room out of the way first \u2013 how did he do it?<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the hardest accent I\u2019ve ever done. It\u2019s hard because you don\u2019t want to do Geordie and you don\u2019t want to do Yorkshire, and there are subtle differences, where different people from different areas of Teesside have different accents, based basically on their class. Me and Monica [Dolan] just kept it going away from scenes so we could sound like a married couple, because married couples tends to have a kind of shorthand.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a big Tottenham Hotspur supporter,\u201d he continues, as I wonder where this is going. \u201cAt the time, my driver on the show was a big Spurs supporter, and we\u2019d just fired Jose Mourinho. We were trying to get [Mauricio] Pochettino back as manager and every time, my warm up when I got back into the car to start filming every day, I would say to my driver, [in Hartlepool accent<\/em>] \u2018What\u2019s happening with Pochettino?\u2019 And then I\u2019d be in action all day long.\u201d<\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n On to more serious matters, then. The retelling of the Darwin story is complex, mainly as it\u2019s retold from the perspective of Anne. While she was found guilty for her part in the crime, her failed defence of \u2018marital coercion\u2019 may have been viewed differently in the post-MeToo era.<\/p>\n It\u2019s partly this complexity, while balancing the absurd humour of the situation, which drew Marsan to the role \u2013 and what surprised him when delving into Anne and John\u2019s life a little more.<\/p>\n \u201cI think what was brilliant, and surprised me so much within the writing, was that they loved each other. When I did Tyrannosaur 12 or 13 years ago, when I played an abusive husband, the abuse was so extreme, and it was so far away from the norm it was comfortably away from the norm. It was something that the audience could look at and judge, but it wouldn\u2019t challenge them, they wouldn\u2019t have to question themselves.<\/p>\n Confirmed: The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe. Starts Sunday 17 April at 9pm on @ITV<\/a> and @itvhub<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/oCjrk5ZVXE<\/a><\/p>\u2014 ITV Press Centre (@itvpresscentre) April 7, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote>