One of the sons of John Darwin who faked his death in a canoeing accident sneaked onto the set of a new ITV show about the fraud.
As filming got underway of ITV's The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe, actors Eddie Marsan and Monica Dolan were told about a visit from one of Darwin's sons. It was reported that the son was on set in disguise wearing a baseball cap and Covid mask, The Mirror reports.
The new four-part drama will tell the story of Darwin who faked his death in a canoeing accident in 2002 and plotted a new life in Panama with his wife Anne. Ex-Mirror journalist David Leigh, was the first to trace Anne in Panama after the £1m pension and insurance scam.
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Eddie, who plays John Darwin in the new series, said they had "no idea" about the son's visit, saying: "We had no idea until a few weeks later. He had come in with a baseball cap and a Covid mask on to watch. We didn’t get any feedback."
The Darwins, from Seaton Carew, had unwisely posed for a photo which the Mirror published in 2007 to reveal the plot under the headline Canoe’s This In Panama? David has been advising on the series to make sure it is authentic.
Viewers will also see son Mark Darwin, played by Mark Stanley, visiting his dad with a copy of the Mirror. Mark and his brother Anthony were kept in the dark about the scam.
Eddie and Monica also told how they kept up their North East accents for weeks filming the ITV drama.
East Londoner Eddie, 53, said: "We kept our accents and we just stayed like that so we sounded like a family. You don’t want to think about it whilst you are doing a scene because there are so many other things to think about."
Monica added: "You came out of your cabin and said ‘I’m gonna speak like that’ and I said ‘I’m talking like that already."
Eddie was so keen to emulate John he also found out his favourite music and listened to a playlist in his caravan each day to get into character.
He said: "We asked Anne Darwin what music John liked and surprisingly it came back ‘ABBA and country and western’. The funny thing is me and my wife share Spotify. My wife was kind of thinking was I going through a midlife crisis because there was Dolly Parton and ABBA on the whole time."
John, 71, was sentenced to six years three months in jail for fraud and Anne, 69, got three months longer. He was released in January 2011 and now lives in the Philippines while Anne was freed in March 2011 and lives in York.
The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe will be on ITV next month and available to stream as a box set on ITV Hub.
