As much as Raoul Moat dominated the headlines back in the summer of 2010, nearly 13 years later many of our memories of the events are fuzzy. But as ITV’s miniseries remind us, even the version we were fed then was made murkier by the media and the internet. The narrative around Moat framed him as something of a dark vigilante, with a vendetta against the police and an unlikely friendship with Paul Gascoigne, who showed up at the standoff offering to defuse the situation with chicken, lager and a fishing rod. But in a heady mix of misogyny, media sensationalism and good old-fashioned misanthropy, even as events unfolded Moat’s victims – Chris Brown, Samantha Stobbart and David Rathband – were cast as bit players in the tale of a supposed antihero.
The show begins a year after the shooting, when people gather and lay flowers saying, “We’re here because Raoul Moat is a hero to us”, before flashing back to the previous summer. Samantha is lying in the sunshine in Birtley, Gateshead, flirting with charming karate instructor Chris. The two tentatively form a bond, with Chris having the sort of openness and kindness that Samantha can scarcely believe exists in the world. But Samantha is getting increasingly nervous as her ex-boyfriend, who is in prison serving a four-month sentence for assaulting a nine-year-old, is due to be released in a matter of days.
