After weeks of build up, The Thief, His Wife and The Canoe has definitely lived up to its hype, proving to be unmissable drama since its debut o9n Easter Sunday.
Following on from much talked about Sheridan Smith series No Return, emotional Hillsborough drama Anne and the latest series of The Bay, ITV have placed their hopes of a ratings winner on a dramatization of the shocking real-life story of 'canoe man ' John Darwin and his 'fake death' scam, that saw him and wife Anne lie to the police, authorities and their own sons in a bid to get money after finding themselves in crippling amounts of debt. As viewers have seen so far this week, the scam started when John paddled out to sea in a kayak, close to the couple's home in Seaton Carew.
He then made it look like he'd disappeared when, in reality, he camped out in the wild for a few weeks, as Anne reported him missing and a large scale search operation was launched. Eventually the search was called off and, at an inquest, a coroner ruled that John was missing presumed dead. John being ruled as dead helped Anne claim over £250,000 in pensions, insurance and benefits, while her husband was still very much alive and living in a bedsit right next door to the family home.
