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For six years John Darwin pretended he was dead – faking his own drowning in a canoeing accident. With his wife Anne at his side, he lived out a fantasy, changing his name, altering his appearance, and hiding from the debt-ridden world he left behind.
When he walked into a police station in December 2007, uttering the words ‘I think you’ve been looking for me’ John Darwin’s story was reported as a miraculous return for a loving husband and father. But days later, when a picture surfaced of John and Anne together in Panama after his supposed ‘death,’ Darwin’s lies started to unravel.
True North is the only production company with exclusive access to the police investigation that pieced together the amazing story of John’s double life and his wife Anne’s part in the deception.
One Man And His Canoe: The John Darwin Story reveals the extent of the Darwins’ fraud and the intricate web of deceit the couple created to get their hands on £250,000 of life insurance money. It shows how the Darwins deceived the police, their friends, and even their two sons who thought their father had been washed out to sea. And it reveals the moment that John Darwin finally faced up to the truth.
Confronted by police with the evidence of his secret life, John and Anne reveal how their debts spiralled out of control, how John remained hidden for five years, and how they lied to their sons to protect their own secret.
Facing mounting evidence that John’s disappearance was a hoax, the film sees John admit to plotting his own death, picking the right weather conditions, and canoeing out of sight, before sneaking back to the shore to begin his new existence.
The Darwins were each jailed for over 6 years for the scam. One Man And His Canoe:: The John Darwin Story hears John try to explain his fraud, and reveals how Anne’s lies to her sons were ‘the most difficult’ of her deceptions.
The film follows their lies across the world – from North East England to Panama – via Kansas and Gibraltar; and reveals the lengths they’d go to, to evade justice.