Little did the police know, John had actually faked his own death, with the help of his wife Anne, so that they could claim the life insurance money.
On 21 March 2002, Hartlepool prison officer John Darwin went out in his canoe.
In 2007, after trying and failing to start a new life under a fake name in Panama with Anne, John turned up at a police station in London, claiming he had amnesia.
The ITV series ends with Anne leaving prison and going to a halfway house in Leeds – but where are the Darwins now? Anne separated from John just before she was released from prison. “I hadn’t realised how much John manipulated me until I was in prison.