The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe has had viewers on the edge of their seats this week, and now a documentary detailing the real story has aired on ITV.
The drama ran over four nights, focusing on how Anne, played by Monica Dolan, became complicit in her husband’s deception as she started to convince the world, their family and friends, the police and insurance companies, that he had gone missing in 2002 whilst canoeing off the coast of Seaton Carew in Cleveland, where the couple owned two large houses with panoramic views of the sea.
The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe: The Real Story aired on Thursday night and showed real footage from police interviews. Mirror journalist David Leigh was also invited to speak on the programme, as well as a number of officers who were involved in the investigation.
READ MORE: Where are John Darwin and his wife Anne now?
Looking back, a number of the officers - as well as those who knew John - said they had their suspicions. However, there was no evidence to prove anything early on in the investigation.
Detective Supt Tony Hutchinson, who led the investigation back in 2002, told viewers: "There was no evidence, in 2002, to suggest it was anything other than what it was. You may have your suspicions, but we work with evidence [and there was none]."
John "came back to life" in 2007, walking into a London police station and claiming he had lost his memory. However, their lies soon began to unravel and the discovery of a photograph had them bang to rights.
The couple flew to Panama in July 2006 and were happily photographed by a Panamanian property agent after renting an apartment - an image which would come back to haunt them years later. The scheme may have worked had it not been for the photo at the property agents, which saw the lying pair alongside Mario Vilar, head of the firm Move To Panama.
And it was a housewife from Cheshire who cracked the case. During the programme on Thursday, viewers were told the woman had been fascinated with the case and had become an "armchair detective".
She had simply typed the words "John", "Anne", and "Panama" into a Google search and chosen to look at the images. She then emailed the photo to the Daily Mirror - and so began the Darwins' downfall.
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