THE THIEF, HIS WIFE AND THE CANOE

This story is so far-fetched that if it wasn’t true, you frankly wouldn’t believe it. It’s the extraordinary case of John Darwin, the former teacher and prison officer who died in a canoeing accident on 21 March 2002. Except, of course, he didn’t. Instead, he paddled along the coast of County Durham, returned to live in a bedsit next door to the family home and collected a life insurance payout of £250,000 to pay off his debts, faking his own death for the next five years. This four-part drama, written by Chris Lang,

the creator of the hit ITV crime series Unforgotten, stars Eddie Marsan as John and Monica Dolan as his wife Anne (both above), who here is seen as a reluctant accomplice to her husband’s scheme. We begin in Panama in 2007 with Anne trying to escape the waiting paparazzi, who have just discovered John is still alive. ‘I’m expecting you’re wondering how I got here,’ she asks us before we head back to the beginning to see how a desperate John decided that faking his own death was the simplest way out of his financial predicament. The real story is told on Thursday in The Thief, His Wife And The Canoe:

The Real Story (9pm, ITV). Sunday-Wednesday, 9pm, UTV