Rangers legend Paul Gascoigne won't appear in ITV's The Hunt for Raoul Moat, despite making a bizarre appearance during the killer's final stand-off with police 13 year's ago.
Moat sparked a huge manhunt after he killed one victim and injured two others in a terrifying gun rampage in July 2010, Chronicle Live reports. After almost a week on the run, he was tracked down by Northumbria officers and involved in a six-hour stand-off, with former England footballer Gazza showing up at the scene in strange turn of events.
But despite his involvement, producers of the true-crime drama have decided not to feature the ex-Spurs star in the show, because his appearance had 'nothing to do' with the story they're trying to tell.
Moat made national headlines after he shot and wounded ex-girlfriend Sam Stobbart, then 22, and killed her new partner Chris Brown, 29. He then shot police officer PC David Rathband, who was left permanently blinded.
The former Newcastle bouncer was on the run for almost a week, with the gunman even making threats to the wider public after becoming angered by media coverage of his crimes.
Police eventually traced him to Rothbury after an abandoned tent he owned was found in woodland near the quiet village. A tense stand-off ensued, however the incident took a strange turn when former England footballer Gazza turned up, armed with a fishing road, lager and a cooked chicken.
The footballer was struggling with addiction at the time, and admitted in an interview years later that he had been drinking and taken cocaine the night of stand-off. He said: "I was telling the taxi driver I could save him. I told him: Listen, I have been through so much, I am the best therapist in the world, I can save him’.
"I think that I genuinely believed that."
The Hunt for Raoul Moat will debut on ITV1 on Sunday, April 16, starring Matt Stoke as Moat and Lee Ingleby as DCS Neil Adamson of Northumbria Police.
In a press conference ahead of it's premier, the show's executive producer, Jake Lushington explained why Gazza is largely absent from the adaptation, saying: "For usa, the story is Raoul Moat's crimes and the efforts to bring him to justice.
"The surprise brief and not very successful intervention from someone famous (Gazza) became a big story at the time but it didn't change the events at all. We've referred to it , but it's got nothing to do with the story we're trying to tell."
He added: "We haven't minimised the impact of Gazza turning up because it didn't have one."
The Hunt for Raoul Moat's writer, Kevin Sampson, added: "Paul Gascoigne was clearly not in a good place at that time. If It felt like we were sending somebody up who was struggling, we'd have to question our motives."
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