ITV viewers settled down for the evening on Easter Sunday to watch the network's latest offering. The Thief, His Wife and The Canoe is the gripping new drama that depicts the real-life story of John and Anne Darwin that once shocked the country.
It tells the story of John Darwin's infamous fake death in 2002 that saw him head off in his canoe in the North Sea after asking his wife to lie about his true whereabouts and claim £250,000 in life insurance.
For years, John, who was born in Hartlepool, Country Durham but went to secondary school in Salford, lived in secret in a bedsit that adjoined the couple's home near Hartlepool - visiting his wife through a door that connected the two old properties. After five years, the couple decided to start a new life in Panama but after realising their plan wouldn't work, John went to the police station, feigning amnesia.
