Paul Gascoigne won't appear in ITV's The Hunt for Raoul Moat, despite the footballer turning up at the scene of the killer's final stand-off quickly becoming headline news 13 years ago. And the the show's producer says the decision was taken not to feature Gazza, because his appearance had 'nothing to do' with the story they're trying to tell.
After shooting dead ex Samantha Stobbart's new boyfriend Christopher Brown in Birtley, Moat shot and blinded PC David Rathband on the outskirts of Newcastle, before heading up to Northumberland.
The man hunt for former Newcastle doorman Moat became huge news in the region and further beyond, with the gunman even making threats to the wider public after becoming incensed by some of the coverage about him in national newspapers.
Eventually, the week long search for Moat came to an end when he was involved in a stand-off with police in Rothbury, after an abandoned tent belonging to him had been found in woodland in the quiet village.
READ MORE: Is ITV's Hunt for Raoul Moat all true? Name change, ex's desperate lie and Gazza absence
News channels had rolling coverage of the stand-off, which then took a bizarre turn when football legend Gazza turned up armed with a fishing rod, lager and a cooked chicken.
Gazza was battling his addiction demons at the time and The Mirror reports that a few years later, he admitted he had been drinking and taken cocaine that night. The former Spurs and England player told fans at an Audience with night: "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."
True crime drama The Hunt for Raoul Moat debuted on ITV1 on Sunday, April 16 but the team behind the three part series, with a cast including Matt Stoke as Moat and Lee Ingleby as DCS Neil Adamson of Northumbria Police, have confirmed that, while Gazza will be mentioned, no-one will be playing him on screen.
In a press conference ahead of its launch, the show's executive producer, Jake Lushington explained why Gazza is largely absent from the adaptation, saying: "For us, 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, also weighed in on the decision not have have Gazza as a character, commenting: "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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