THE Thief, His Wife and the Canoe viewers have all had the same complaint about a ‘blunder’ . The new ITV drama is based on the real-life story of John Darwin from Hartlepool, who faked his own death in 2002 with the help of his wife Anne. The first episode saw John (Eddie Marsan) share […]
THE Thief, His Wife and the Canoe viewers have all had the same complaint about a ‘blunder’ .
The new ITV drama is based on the real-life story of John Darwin from Hartlepool, who faked his own death in 2002 with the help of his wife Anne.
The first episode saw John (Eddie Marsan) share his crazy plan with his shocked wife (Monica Dolan) before picking up his ‘canoe’ to ride out into the sea with before ‘dying’.
However, viewers immediately took issue with the fact John had a kayak, not a canoe, with one writing on Twitter: “Do the props department not know the difference between a canoe and kayak?”
Another added: “I had one problem with #thethiefhiswifeandthecanoe . It looks like a kayak to me.”
A third cheekily tweeted: “Dear ITV, If you have confused a kayak for a canoe so easily, I’m really looking forward to your Titanic drama set on a P&O ferry at Christmas. Best wishes, Me.”
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Meanwhile a fourth shared: “No buoyancy aid, spray deck and a massive space to fit a rucksack in a kayak that they keep calling a canoe… agaaahhhhhhhh! #thethiefhiswifeandthecanoe.”
While John was nicknamed ‘Canoe Man’ at the time of his reappearance in 2007, reports do state that he did actually use a kayak.
A canoe typically has an open deck and is paddled with a single blade, while a kayak has a closed deck with a person’s lower body hidden underneath, and they usually paddle with a double blade.
Elsewhere, some viewers were upset about the accents used by the cast.
Hartlepool is miles down the North East coast from Newcastle, and local accents vary drastically between the two places.
So many viewers from the area were up in arms to hear the cast using Geordie accents rather than a Hartlepool or Teesside dialect.
One said: “No one in Hartlepool talks like this… b****y hell. WE ARE NOT GEORDIES IN TEESSIDE #ITV #thethiefhiswifeandthecanoe.”
Another wrote: “Can’t believe @ITV got it so wrong with the accents on #thethiefhiswifeandthecanoe They weren’t from b****y Newcastle!”
A third penned: “The thief, his wife and a canoe, so, why is it that ITV think people from Teesside speak with a Geordie accent.
“This happened in Hartlepool and we DO NOT have that accent!!!! Insulting!!!!”
The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe continues tonight at 9pm on ITV, with all episodes available on ITV Hub.
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