ITV are celebrating after The Thief, His Wife and The Canoe helped secure them their highest Easter Sunday ratings in 12 years.
Easter weekend is traditionally a time when many channels will pull out their big guns, with ITV traditionally launching Britain's Got Talent over the Bank Holiday every year, but it was the first episode of the four part drama based on the crimes of 'canoe man' John Darwin and wife Anne, which trumped all comers on Sunday, April 17 with a peak audience of 8.7 million, ITV's biggest Easter Sunday audience since 2010's final series of a Touch of Frost.
The TV adaptation of the shocking fake death scandal from 20 years, which saw John paddle out to sea close to his and Anne's home in Seaton Carew, before 'disappearing,' with both police and the couple's own sons fearing him dead. In reality, after spending a few weeks camping in the wild, John ended up living in a bedsit next to the family home for a few years,. before putting the wheel in the motion on a move to Panama.
