BBC snubs the North while filming John Darwin drama

Mar 28 2010 by Nadia Aranjelovic, Sunday Sun

FILMMAKERS who have turned the story of the Seaton Carew canoe scam into a BBC drama have come under fire . . . for filming the programme in Suffolk.

Canoe Man - the story of how fraudster John Darwin and his wife Anne faked his death in 2002 – will be shown on BBC4 this week, with Boys from the Blackstuff and Titanic star Bernard Hill playing Darwin.

But viewers will not be able to see the Seaton Carew beach from which Darwin vanished after the filmmakers decided to film the programme more than 250 miles away in East Anglia.

The decision to snub Seaton Carew has been criticised in the village.

Seaton Carew councillor David Young said: “If they should have done it at all, they should have done it accurately.

“Channel 4 managed to do their documentary in Seaton Carew, so why not the BBC? It’s just beyond reason.”

He was backed by fellow councillor Michael Turner who said: “Personally I am pretty relaxed about it, but I would have preferred if they’d spent some money in the area, used the hotels and facilities and shown Seaton Carew in its full glory and brilliance.”

The BBC was criticised in 2007 when it filmed the George Gently detective drama in Ireland, even though it was set in the North East in the 1960s.

Earlier this year it was announced that the next series of the mysteries would be filmed in County Durham after programme makers got a grant from regional film agency Northern Film and Media.

The Darwins staged his death in 2002 when they were facing mounting debts and were due to embark on a new life in Panama using John’s life insurance money.

The plot unravelled after he turned up at a police station in December 2007, claiming he was a missing person suffering from amnesia. Within days a photo of the Darwins in Panama was discovered on the internet and they were exposed as fraudsters who had even deceived their sons.

Darwin was again exposed last year after he tried to sell his memoirs from behind bars for £1m.

Their story will be dramatised in the programme Canoe Man, starring Hill as Darwin and Saskia Reeves as Anne Darwin.

The programme will be on BBC4 on Wednesday at 9pm.

A BBC spokesperson commented: “Due to the number of locations included in John and Anne Darwin’s story it was not always possible to film in specific areas.”