The writer of The Thief, His Wife, and the Canoe has defended the characters’ accents after viewers called them “inaccurate” and “insulting”.
The ITV series is an adaptation of the real-life story of John and Anne Darwin – played by Eddie Marsan and Monica Dolan, respectively. The Hartlepool couple made headlines in the 2000s after John faked his death in a canoeing accident in order to avoid declaring bankruptcy.
