The four-part series tells the bizarre and unique story of Anne and John Darwin<\/a>, a couple from Hartlepool who hit headlines in the 2000s.<\/p>\n John faked his own death by attempting to paddle out into the North Sea with his canoe, but when his canoe was discovered and his body wasn\u2019t, he was declared dead and Anne could claim life insurance money needed to pay off their extortionate debts.<\/p> The story is undoubtedly comedic by its bizarre nature, but the ITV retelling offers more balance, showing the darkness Anne (played by Monica Dolan) went through and having to live the lie every single day.<\/p>\n For John Darwin actor, Eddie Marsan, the complexity of this reimagining added to the pressure of taking on The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe.<\/p>\n Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com<\/a>, Marsan said in The Big RT Interview<\/a> (out today), that Chris Lang\u2019s script and Richard Laxton\u2019s direction helped him to find the light and shade of the piece.<\/p>\n \u201cI did [feel pressure taking on a true story]. But it was alleviated a lot, because a lot of the work had been done by Richard and Chris before I came on board,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n \u201cThe challenge of the whole piece is that it\u2019s tragic, it\u2019s unbelievable, and it\u2019s funny. And some writers and directors find it very hard to write something that incorporates contradictory elements. But great writing always does.<\/p>\n \u201cSo by the time I came on, it was already taking shape. It already had all those elements in and it was finely balanced. So all I really had to do was not mess it up. Really I just had to do whatever Chris had written and whatever Richard wanted me to do.\u201d<\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe starts tonight at 9pm on ITV and ITV Hub<\/a>.\u00a0<\/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>\u00a0TV 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 Helen Daly Published: Sunday, 17 April 2022 at 12:00 am Get ready to delve into the world of The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe, which starts tonight on ITV. The four-part series tells the bizarre and unique story of Anne and John Darwin, a couple from Hartlepool who hit headlines in the 2000s. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":13991,"template":"","categories":[5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/04\/eddie-marsan-on-challenging-aspect-of-the-thief-his-wife-and-the-canoe-scaled.jpg",2560,1754,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/04\/eddie-marsan-on-challenging-aspect-of-the-thief-his-wife-and-the-canoe-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/04\/eddie-marsan-on-challenging-aspect-of-the-thief-his-wife-and-the-canoe-300x206.jpg",300,206,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/04\/eddie-marsan-on-challenging-aspect-of-the-thief-his-wife-and-the-canoe-768x526.jpg",768,526,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/04\/eddie-marsan-on-challenging-aspect-of-the-thief-his-wife-and-the-canoe-1024x702.jpg",800,548,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/04\/eddie-marsan-on-challenging-aspect-of-the-thief-his-wife-and-the-canoe-1536x1053.jpg",1536,1053,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/04\/eddie-marsan-on-challenging-aspect-of-the-thief-his-wife-and-the-canoe-2048x1403.jpg",2048,1403,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 Helen Daly Published: Sunday, 17 April 2022 at 12:00 am Get ready to delve into the world of The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe, which starts tonight on ITV. The four-part series tells the bizarre and unique story of Anne and John Darwin, a couple from Hartlepool who hit headlines in the 2000s.…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/13990"}],"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\/13991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2022\/04\/THE-THIEFHIS-WIFE-AND-THE-CANOE-03-bca4313.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
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