The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe has sparked a major complaint from viewers, after ITV decided to repeat the 'canoe man' drama, little over a year after it first aired.
It was back in 2002 that Hartlepool man Darwin 'disappeared' after going out to sea in a canoe close to the home he shared with wife Anne. His disappearance, which was eventually called off with John presumed dead, was in fact a wicked scheme cooked up to fraudulently claim insurance, benefits and pension, to help with Darwin's escalating debt, which was rumoured to be in excess of £700,000.
While the whole North East coastline was scaled to look for Darwin, the reality was that he was actually hiding out in a property right next to the family home, with wife Anne fully aware he was in the property, as the couple lied to their sons. After John managed to et a fake passport, using a dead man's name, he fled to Panama, where Anne later joined him.
READ MORE: What happened to 'canoe man' John Darwin after prison stretch
The game was finally up for them, when John walked into a London police station, claiming to have no memory of what had happened to him, only for a photo to emerge of them at an estate agent's office in Panama.
The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe was a big ratings winner for ITV in April 2022, so it came as a big surprise to viewers that the channel chose to repeat it already. Taking to Twitter, one critic complained: "Why are we being subjected to another viewing of ‘The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe’ so soon? Litvinenko following next week again, has ITV run out of money? So many repeats 7 days a week. ITV is like a rudderless ship, going round in circles!!!"
A second tweeted: "ITV make millions from advertisements but you don’t see it returned in the s**t they put on day in day out.. Repeating already something that was on last year ‘The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe’ tonight."
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