“A brilliant idea”. This is how John Darwin presents his wife Anne with his solution to solve their problems of over-indebtedness. Customary of risky investments and cascading loans, this former prison guard wants to pass himself off as dead in order to recover the life insurance premium and make a new start! This four-episode mini-series is inspired by a news item that made headlines in the UK in the mid-2000s.
From the simulation of a canoeing accident to the revelation of the deception and its legal consequences, the incredible sequence of bad decisions that led the couple to their loss is told here by Anne Darwin. We discover how this self-effacing and naive woman was led to flout, one after the other, the principles that had governed her daily life until then. «All I wanted was a simple life,” she confides to journalist David Leigh, who retraced her story in a book from which the series is drawn.
Outstanding actors
Under the psychological influence of her husband, Anne quickly finds herself in an untenable position: she must lie to the police, to the bankers, to all of her family, in particular to her sons devastated by mourning, while her husband lives holed up in the house next door! Years of shame and terror of being discovered…
Twice awarded at the Marseille Series Stories 2022 festival (including the prize for the best series adapted from a literary work), The Disappearance of John Darwin combines the assets: a surprising story, an inventive production full of humor (by Richard Laxton) and outstanding actors. With a look full of mischief sometimes crossed by a flash of madness, Eddie Marsan perfectly embodies the ambiguous John Darwin, both pathetic and odious. And Monica Dolan, awarded for her performance at the Marseille festival, is moving in the role of the submissive wife on the way to emancipation.