Based on the story of John Darwin and Anne Darwin, the four-parter follows a couple who in desperate financial times resorted to a preposterous plan to fake John’s death so that they could claim life insurance money.
However, after they embarked on a new adventure in a faraway sunlit destination, various slip-ups resulted in them being found out, with their story dominating the headlines and grabbing media attention.
While viewers were drawn in by Eddie Marsan (John) and Monica Dolan’s (Anne) performance, there was a glaring problem fans couldn’t get over.
One person seethed: ‘The thief, his wife, and a canoe, so, why is it that ITV think people from Teesside speak with a Geordie accent. This happened in Hartlepool and we DO NOT have that accent!!!! Insulting!!!!’
Another fan, who was a little more understanding wrote: ‘The thing about NE accents is they change about 10 times in a 20 mile radius. I sound different to someone from 6 miles up the road. They’re so nuanced, it’s beautiful really. So I forgive the cast of #thethiefhiswifeandthecanoe for not nailing the accent. You can hear they tried.’
Responding to the controversy on social media, series writer Chris Lang wrote: ‘It’s lovely people are so passionate about their own accents! John & Anne of course weren’t from Seaton Carew, they only moved there in 2002.
‘They were both born near Blackhall & over the next five decades lived and worked in (to name a few) Newcastle, Chester Le Street & Durham.’
The first instalment saw John putting his bizarre plan into motion, and despite Anne’s efforts to talk him out of it, she finally obliged to help him.
In 2006, the real-life couple made one of their biggest and most significant blunders, when they were photographed by an estate agent in Panama and their picture was uploaded onto the internet.
After Anne planned to sell their home in the UK in 2007, their cover-up came to a crashing end.
The photo of the Darwins in the property agent’s office – taken in 2006, four years after John’s disappearance – was found on Google Images and published in the Daily Mirror upon its discovery.
In 2008, having been arrested and put on trial, both husband and wife were found guilty of fraud, with John sentenced to six years and three months in prison and Anne three months longer than her spouse.
However, John was released from jail on probation in January 2011, with Anne also released two months later.
The Thief, His Wife, And Canoe returns tonight at 9pm on ITV.
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