Television Review | A lack of money drives a married couple to stage a man’s death on a canoe trip

Culture|Television review

Fifty a married couple is on the verge of a property crime. There is only one reasonable solution, the man says. They have to stage his death. So in the British series based on true events The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe is also done.

Anne and John Darwin (Monica Dolan and Eddie Marsan) owned rental apartments do not generate enough. The life insurance money would keep them afloat, so John heads out to sea with the canoe, and Anne calls the police the next day to report her missing.

Anne acts as the narrator of the series, which emphasizes the human consequences of the story. A Catholic woman has a bad conscience, especially for deceiving her children, while the man is already weaving the next plan. The four-part series follows its main characters over the years.

Series Creator Chris Lang known for his police series What to leave behind (2015–). He also embeds his new story firmly in everyday life. The harbor town of Hartlepool is painted in gray and brown, and the main characters look their age, even older.

There is plenty of humor hidden in the intersections of the mundane and the astonishing, but towards the end the series changes tone and asks real questions about guilt and atonement. Sometimes it’s hard to take the questions seriously when the characters have been made into jokes first.

The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe, C More. (K12)