After the trailer for the three part series received its premiere on Sunday night, ITV have now revealed when The Hunt for Raoul Moat will start, with the true crime drama set to dominate the broadcaster's primetime schedule for three nights in a row.
It was back in spring of last year that it was announced that ITV, together with World Productions, the company behind smash hit dramas like Line of Duty, Bodyguard and Vigil, would be bringing the event of summer 2010 back into the spotlight, with Bodyguard and The Musketeers star Matt Stokoe in the title role of gunman Moat, who killed Christopher Brown, the new boyfriend of his ex Samantha Stobbart and shot and blinded PC David Rathband, who took his own life a few years later.
Moat's crimes, which he committed less than 48 hours after being released from prison, led to a large scale man hunt to find him and, after he fled to Northumberland, the week long search came to as fraught end when, after a stand-off police, Moat shot himself and died from his injuries.
READ MORE: ITV Raoul Moat drama writer wants to 'honour victims' with three part series
The Hunt for Raoul Moat follows on from ITV documentary Man Hunt, which aired in 2020, with the cast also including Inspector George Gently actor Lee Ingleby, in the role of Detective Chief Superintendent Neil Adamson, who led the police response 13 years ago.
When does The Hunt for Raoul Moat start on ITV?
ITV have now confirmed that the three part series will begin on Sunday. April 16. And, following the same pattern as another crime drama, The Canoe Man, did last year, it will dominate ITV's primetime slot for three nights in a row, with each episode airing at 9pm.
It will be followed by a documentary on the search for Moat on April 19..
Speaking about his intentions for the drama based on Raoul Moat and his victims, the show's writer, Kevin Sampson, told ChronicleLive: "My immediate aim was to honour the three victims, to portray them as they were, as young, everyday people just getting on with their lives, until that basic freedom and normality was taken away from them
"We took the decision that we wanted to spend the first 15 minutes getting to know Chris and Sam and tell the story of two people coming together and starting to fall in love.
Kevin added: "I’m grateful that ITV supported that mission: It’s quite a risk, starting a primetime drama with quite a low-key romance. But I was determined that Chris Brown shouldn’t just be portrayed as the guy that got shot. He had plans. He had dreams. He had a name. So everything had to start from Chris, walking into Samantha’s life."
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