Mini TV Review – The Thief, His Wife And The Canoe

Recently I have been watching The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe; and it was pretty good! Created by Chris Lang, and starring Monica Dolan, Eddie Marsan, and Mark Stanley, The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe is a drama based on the real life story of the John Darwin Disappearance Case. The story follows John Darwin who faked his own death in order to collect the insurance money, and drags his wife into his scheme in order to make it work as convincingly as possible. I personally can remember this story when it was first reported back in 2007, and an edition of Have I Got News For You which also looked into the story. It was an interesting and captivating story, all be it a rather conflicting one. I can remember a previous adaptation (Canoe Man) of this story many years ago, but I can remember that one suggesting that Anne was the real villain not John; whereas in this case we see john held up in a very unsympathetic way as the main villain, and Anne an unfortunate victim. So as a result of two conflicting dramas, it was hard to fully see Anne as a victim in this whole story; but that does loosen up as the show went on. It was interesting to see the set-up, and how the crime was created, and thought out, as well as how they were able to keep the illusion going, whilst also providing a plausible reason as to why it all fell apart. It was a serious drama but made in a comical way, which does get less comical and more serious as time goes by, but by this time you are hooked in and don’t want to turn away. So altogether it was a fun at times, but also heavy piece of drama; although I do feel sorry for the poor Canoe though, as though while it’s name appears in the show’s title, it’s gone by episode two!