The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe: What the Must Watch reviewers think
Every week, the Must Watch podcasters review the biggest TV and streaming shows.
This week, Scott Bryan and Hayley Campbell review the The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe on ITV.
Eddie Marsan and Monica Dolan star in the true crime drama about former prison officer, John Darwin, who faked his own death with the help of his wife to claim life insurance money.
Photo: ITV
Hayley says: "Mind-blowing in its details"
"I loved this! Aside from it being a mad story, I loved all the little details about husband and wife. Their relationship, this strange control he has over her, all of this mundane domestic stuff that’s going on at the same time as this completely unbelievable story. All of which is stuff that writer Chris Lang had to imagine because the family weren’t part of this production.
"I think Lang is very good at the kind of twisty, domestic story that this is. ‘Unforgotten’ is about people getting in over their head or making decisions that cannot be undone and that’s what’s happening here. He makes more a point of coercive control in this series than it ever was in the news, though I believe it was part of her defence.
"It’s not a dark, gritty series about a crime: it’s very funny as well as being mind-blowing in its details. Tonally I think this works really well, and the cast help bring this thing to life (even though I have seen some arguments on Twitter about the complexities of regional northern accents).
"I think a lot of this is down to the magnetism of Eddie Marsan: his humour comes through a lot and you can't help but kind of like him, and be led along by him too, even though everything he's doing is ridiculous and doomed and also a heartbreaking betrayal of his sons. Everything he does brings something to it that others wouldn’t.’"
Photo: ITV
Scott says: "A story so wild if it was fictionalised it would never have been made"
"I agree with everything Hayley said! It’s really interesting, well-acted and really well done. I was a bit cautious to start off with that it was going to go down the route from the perspective of the wife’s point of view to garner sympathy for her, when I think there is not much sympathy to be had. Yet, they handled it well. You end up understanding how this wild idea came about and why they planned to roll it out in the way they did. You then see close up how everything started to unravel.
"I loved the weird scenario of Anne being in the house and John being next door. Anne and her own two sons (who think John is dead) are all celebrating Christmas in one room while John is in the next room with a big beard playing on a computer in the dark by himself. That difference between the two places is so staggering. It just hits you at how surreal the whole circumstance must have been.
"I agree with Hayley at how funny some bits are but it never really goes away from the real tragedy of it, of the fact that real lives who had nothing to do with this have been messed up with this plan. I was absorbed by this, this was a story so wild if it was fictionalised it would never have been made because everyone would have said this was too implausible!
"Much appreciation for Monica Dolan as well in this too. I think she is a brilliant serious actor but also incredibly comedic too."
Photo: ITV
The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe is available now on ITV Hub.
Must Watch is released as a podcast every Monday evening from BBC Sounds and all other good podcast providers.
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