The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe viewers rage over ‘insulting accents’ – but did you notice?
THE Thief, His Wife and the Canoe viewers have a big complaint about ITV's newest crime drama.
The series was criticised online for the actors in the show mixing up two accents from North East England.
Based on John Darwin's infamous fake death in 2002, the plot follows John (Eddie Marsan) and his wife Anne (Monica Dolan) being wrongfully jailed claiming John's life insurance.
They were jailed for the fraud, with the extent of the parents' deception shocking the world.
The real-life couple spends more than six years in prison after staging John's death and escaping to Panama to start a new life.
The show explores the extent of Anne's culpability and how much she was forced to go along with her husband's plan.
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Their sons, Anthony and Mark, are shown supporting their supposedly widowed mother for years, throwing wreaths into the North Sea in front of Anne's home where their father was hiding next door.
But many fans took to Twitter to slate the drama for "insulting" them by giving the show's Teeside residents a distinct Geordie twang.
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!"
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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!!!!"
Teesside is in fact 32 miles from Newcastle and the two districts have historic local rivalries - along with plenty of banter on Twitter.
Despite the criticism, the drama was also praised for its "gripping" storyline.
The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe continues on ITV at 9pm on Monday.