The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe (ITV Canoe Man comedy drama)

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

This starts on Sunday 17th April on ITV at 9pm.

We all know the basic details of this bizarre saga: a man facing bankruptcy fakes his own death at sea, in order to receive his life insurance. He then continues to live next door to his wife while keeping a low profile. The whole scam is eventually exposed.

Everyone laughed at the absurdity of it all. Which is understandable. But...

Spoiler alert

The series highlights just how fucking weird and selfish the Canoe Man was. He gaslit his wife. He didn't appear to give a shit about his adult sons, who genuinely thought their dad was dead. The man was a narcissist who literally hid in plain sight.

And yes, it's often very funny. It's also very sad. The writer strikes just the right balance. Canoe Man is mocked for his selfish delusions, but he also comes across as a pathetic and pitiable figure. His wife and children are treated sympathetically. They were victims.

[close]

Anyway. It's very good. Eddie Marsan plays Canoe Man. Monica Dolan plays his wife. Fine actors both. The canoe is presumably played by a replica.

   

[neveragain]

I really enjoyed the first episode tonight. Zipped along on the strengths of Dolan and Marsan. There's been a Twitter fuss over the accents but I thought they were more than passable.

[Enzo]

good to see Karl Pilkington

[Malcy]

good to see Karl Pilkington

I know he's in it but didn't spit him in episode 1.

[JarrowMonkey]

The accents are pish, haven't watched it all, just the clips, is it a comedy drama?, whatever it is, actors can act and do accents, so learn to do a 'artlepool accent instead of a fucking Geordie one

[neveragain]

Well, from what I've read, John and Anne(?) Darwin were from Newcastle or roundabouts but moved to Hartlepool, so that scans fine for me.

[JesusAndYourBush]

It's amazing he was able to stay hidden for as long as he did.  From last nights episode his plan came over as a load of bumbling ineptitude, almost comedic at times.

[Captain Z]

I quite enjoyed the Millionaire docu-drama last year, hammy as it was, so have been looking forward to this.

But I would have called it "I Can't Remember My Name, Canoe?"

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

It's amazing he was able to stay hidden for as long as he did.  From last nights episode his plan came over as a load of bumbling ineptitude, almost comedic at times.

Yeah, episode one definitely leans more towards the comical aspect of it all. Because his whole plan really was fucking absurd. But then it digs into the stark repercussions of his selfish actions. He comes across as a total prick.

[daf]

I know he's in it but didn't spit him in episode 1.

[Rizla]

I wouldn't watch Eddie Marsan in anything. Well, maybe a threshing machine, or face down in a pool of his own viscera. A sealed tank full of water.

[Ferris]

I wouldn't watch Eddie Marsan in anything. Well, maybe a threshing machine, or face down in a pool of his own viscera. A sealed tank full of water.

So much for the tolerant left!!

[lauraxsynthesis]

I wouldn't watch Eddie Marsan in anything. Well, maybe a threshing machine, or face down in a pool of his own viscera. A sealed tank full of water.

For real. I want to watch this and used to be a fan of his but he's such an effing troll on Twitter

I wonder if the captions at the end will include this business of Darwin going to Ukraine to fight lol

[jobotic]

So much for the tolerant left!!

Kinder, gentler TV criticism.

[Mr_Simnock]

I find marsan's character a bit scary, I've known a couple people with that level of stupidity and detachement from everyone else, it's just hard work interacting with them over time, I really feel for his (the characters) wife in reality having to try and put up with that kind of scum bag.

[Des Wigwam]

Do ITV just have one person who does younger woman as older woman makeup? They never manage to get it right - not "words spoken by an actor" level of wrong, just not right. Be interesting to know if other people have an instinctual recognition of this (but not interesting enough for me to do any research).

Watched the first ep last night and thought it was ok. Always good to see how much more there is behind a headline story I sort of know about. I thought that it had the essence of all the depressing, desperate, and farcical elements that the story seems to be. I have started to become a bit obsessed with how ITV dramas aren't quite right so looking forward to the scenes in Panama and other totally tropical places.

I believe the canoe is played by the actual canoe's son.

[Bad Ambassador]

Hilarious that he used the passport-in-the-name-of-a-dead-child trick from The Day of the Jackal.

[dissolute ocelot]

Hilarious that he used the passport-in-the-name-of-a-dead-child trick from The Day of the Jackal.

Disappearing MP John Stonehouse, who faked his death to avoid allegations of being a spy, used exactly the same trick to escape to Australia. I wonder if that's where Canoe Man got it from.

[Captain Z]

I binged all 4 episodes yesterday. I accidentally started watching "TTHWATC: The Real Story" for a few minutes, and it began with an interview with the policeman on reception duty the day he turned up. Apparently, he went from having no idea who he was to recalling "John" and then "Darwin" within just a few minutes. I was therefore quite disappointed when that scene didn't play out quite like that in the drama.

[gilbertharding]

Alternatively - if you can only spare an hour, and want a less imaginative title - the BBC's version from 2010 (so one would assume that the period details will stand a better chance of not being wrong) was shown on Saturday night, so will be on the iPlayer.

Well played, BBC. Well played.

[Des Wigwam]

Alternatively - if you can only spare an hour, and want a less imaginative title - the BBC's version from 2010 (so one would assume that the period details will stand a better chance of not being wrong) was shown on Saturday night, so will be on the iPlayer.

Well played, BBC. Well played.

Thanks. Will have a look.

Re: period details - Only on ep 2 and I haven't really paid attention but the cars just seem wrong. There seem to be a lot of mid-80s registrations knocking about so much so that I looked up the dates to make sure I hadn't lost a decade of my life and only just found out.

[Keebleman]

Over the past few days I've been plagued with people sending me screen grabs saying how much I look like Eddie Marsan (and this was before the nude scene).  It's hard to accept but, sadly, harder to disagree.

[Jockice]

I caught a few minutes of this earlier and it contains one of my biggest bugbears, something they practically never get right on TV.

No newspaper, even a local one, would have a headline saying 'Seaton Carew Resident Back From The Dead.' The headline would be 'Back From The Dead' with possibly a standfirst or sub-head explaining more. But it's a strong enough headline even without that. You don't have to say exactly where the person's from unless it becomes synonymous with an event such as Dunblane or Lockerbie and the person concerned is somehow connected with that particular story.

Still, at least the headline - like most seen on television dramas - didn't use the word 'local' which I did once in my newspaper days - because nothing else relevant would fit - and got flayed alive for. I learned my lesson that day.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

I agree, but they'll never learn.

I'd love to know how Karl Pilkington ended up having a (distracting) cameo in this. The Canoe Man saga is exactly the sort of thing he'd be obsessed with, so I wouldn't be surprised if he actually asked to be in it.

[Ambient Sheep]

I caught a few minutes of this earlier and it contains one of my biggest bugbears, something they practically never get right on TV.

No newspaper, even a local one, would have a headline saying 'Seaton Carew Resident Back From The Dead.' The headline would be 'Back From The Dead' with possibly a standfirst or sub-head explaining more...

I think you'll like this, that popped up on my Twitter feed yesterday:

https://twitter.com/MattTempest/status/1515958533921071104

[George White]

Hilarious that he used the passport-in-the-name-of-a-dead-child trick from The Day of the Jackal.

Highlander - Macleod did it too.

[JesusAndYourBush]

Seeing how many years went by before he was caught, despite that he seemed to me making it up as he went along, makes me think that there are probably quite a few people who did proper planning and faked their death and got away with it, never to be caught.

[imitationleather]

Seeing how many years went by before he was caught, despite that he seemed to me making it up as he went along, makes me think that there are probably quite a few people who did proper planning and faked their death and got away with it, never to be caught.

Captain Tom reads this post and chuckles to himself while sat in a villa in Barbados with Boris Yeltsin and MF DOOM.

[The Lurker]

I'd love to know how Karl Pilkington ended up having a (distracting) cameo in this. The Canoe Man saga is exactly the sort of thing he'd be obsessed with, so I wouldn't be surprised if he actually asked to be in it.

*Something something John Darwin was an idiot abroad*

[George White]

Do ITV just have one person who does younger woman as older woman makeup? They never manage to get it right - not "words spoken by an actor" level of wrong, just not right. Be interesting to know if other people have an instinctual recognition of this (but not interesting enough for me to do any research).

Watched the first ep last night and thought it was ok. Always good to see how much more there is behind a headline story I sort of know about. I thought that it had the essence of all the depressing, desperate, and farcical elements that the story seems to be. I have started to become a bit obsessed with how ITV dramas aren't quite right so looking forward to the scenes in Panama and other totally tropical places.

I believe the canoe is played by the actual canoe's son.

The Panama stuff was shot in Portugal. I believe they planned to shoot in Dominican Republic, but Covid ruled them out.