The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe

I too enjoyed this four parter and will watch the real story tonight.  His character really got under your skin.  Easy to say when it's not you but I found it difficult to comprehend why his wife didn't just tell him to sod off with his ideas but, as she said, she didn't know any other way of life and I had a mother of the same ilk.  

DK wrote "So did I, especially being married to a real Geordie, "

I once heard it defined that a Geordie was one born within spitting distance of the Tyne and a "real Geordie" was one who lived on the banks of the Wear and could still spit in the Tyne.

My wife is too much of a lady to spit at anything

Accents can change between adjacent villages in my experience. Lincolnshire is a huge county, second to Yorkshire but listen to the voices of those from The Deepings, those of Barton upon Humber, those of Claypole, those of Louth and those of Epworth and you could conclude they were all  from different counties. I find it fascinating but the nuances spoken of and listened to in this drama does not detract from its brilliance.

Did anyone watch the follow up documentary last night, with the known facts? Just wondered if it changed your view of either party?

David

Have to admit I haven't watched any of it, I know Anne Darwin has written a book about her experiences, I supoose there's money to be made somewhere. I'll probably watch it on iplayer or whatever. 

I watched it and am still of the same opinion that John Darwin was a bit of a tosspot with his attitude and also that Anne Darwin was just a weak person who didn't have the ability to stand up to her husband.  A stronger women would have chucked him out long before his silly notion of faking his own death.  I find the idea of making money from book sales distasteful whoever or whatever the crime.

It didn't change my mind about him. Jill's word 'tosspot' sums him up. Stupidity and arrogance combined to make a story you couldn't write.

I did come away from the documentary with mixed feelings about her and wondered whether she was quite as weak as the drama portrayed or whether she was more complicit in the planning than she'd like us to believe. 

I watched 75% of the first episode and got bored. In my opinion Jill has summed it up perfectly.

OK we only saw snippets of it but the interview on This Morning Anne Darwin came across as quite a confident women and I imagine being a doctors receptionist is not a role for the faint hearted? I am not suggesting that she helped formulate the plan but it does seem she to have gone along with the idea for some years? I wonder who persuaded her to go for the coercive control defense? It would seem that she would have been better to have pleaded guilty and used coercive control as the reason why she went along with it as its probable that a jury and judge would have been more sympathetic meaning a shorter sentence? I didn't realise she had written a book!

David

Edit:- I have just looked up the book, Out of my Depth,  which was published in 2016, according to a note on Amazon Anne Darwin has not received any fees from the publication of the book.