Playing Raoul Moat was darkest thing I’ve ever done – I had to make major change to appearance, says actor Matt Stokoe
THE shocking case of gun fugitive Raoul Moat is the latest true crime cases to be made into an ITV drama.
The three-part series, which will air this month, will tell the story of one of the most infamous manhunts in UK history, with police scrambling to catch a man who had vowed to kill as many of them as possible.
And actor Matt Stokoe, who plays the killer, found the role so draining that he had to take time out after filming finished.
In the early hours of July 3, 2010, Raoul Moat, a 37-year-old ex prisoner, began his killing spree at a flat in Gateshead armed with a sawn-off shotgun.
Here, he shot his former girlfriend Samantha Stobbart, then 22, who was horrifically injured but survived, and her new partner Chris Brown, 29, who didn’t.
The next day, Moat shot PC David Rathband, 42, in the face, after spotting him sitting in his police vehicle near the A1 in Newcastle.
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Chillingly, he had called police minutes before the shooting, to tell them he was “hunting” officers.
Rathband was left permanently blind and took his own life 19 months later after he couldn’t cope with his new disability, the coroner ruled.
Moat, who was released from Durham Prison just two days before beginning his deadly rampage, had declared a “war on coppers” because he wrongly believed Samantha was dating a police officer and said they had ruined his life.
In fact, her new partner was a karate instructor.
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Police knew it was a race against time to stop the crazed ex bouncer.
A £1.4million man hunt was launched, with 160 armed officers deployed and the town of Rothbury in Northumberland placed on lockdown.
In a series of phone calls, letters and tape recordings, Moat made it clear he was out for revenge, saying: “I will keep killing police until I am dead.
"They’ve hunted me for years, now it’s my turn.”
With their search hampered by false sightings and conspiracy claims, armed police stalked through countryside while locals were warned to stay indoors until Moat was cornered by officers near a riverbank on July 9.
Memorably, in the midst of the tense standoff, ex-footballer Paul Gascoigne arrived in a taxi armed with a bucket of fried chicken and a fishing rod, saying he’d be able to help get Moat to lay down his arms.
He said: “I just want to give him some therapy and say, ‘Come on Moatie, it’s Gazza.”
At 1am on July 10, Moat shot himself and was taken to hospital for treatment, but pronounced dead.
Sickeningly, some people hailed him as a hero for outwitting the police.
Scores of people flocked to the riverside spot where he killed himself, and the Facebook group RIP Raoul Moat you Legend had attracted 30,000 followers.
More than 100 people, many with no connection to Moat, went to his funeral and a make-shift shrine was set up on the site where took his own life.
Actor Matt said he needed time to recover in a “decompression chamber” following his role as the killer.
Matt, 34, who is engaged to Gentleman Jack and Bodyguard star Sophie Rundle, said: “I was in quite a robust place going into it.
“But through osmosis when playing a part like that this kind of sadness creeps in.
“When the subject matter is so heavy, you’re trying to commit to it and give it the effort that it deserves, over time, there’s an accumulative pressure, you know, trying to insulate my family and things from that.
“I’ve never been one of these people that go to a really dark place and uses ‘method’ and all the stereotypes that come in.
“At the end of the job, as dramatic as it sounds, I felt like my central nervous system didn’t really know the difference, like I’d been through some really heavy, sad, loss or some experience.
“And it took a few weeks to kind of realise that.
“I was moping around, almost feeling sorry for myself, despite that I hadn’t been through anything — that there was nothing wrong.
“In fact, most of the time, when you finish a job you’re on cloud nine because you’ve made some friends, you’ve done some good work, you get to go on holiday, you get to socialise again.
“And I had some time almost in like a decompression chamber, taking myself out of that mindset.”
After filming wrapped. Matt cut his hair as part of a “cleansing” process.
He explained: “I think it was by cleansing that at the end of the job, I got to shave off the iconic mohawk and take off the orange t-shirt.
“It felt very oppressive by the end so it was nice to be able to kind of literally shut all that out by the end.”
Christopher Brown had begun dating the killer’s ex-girlfriend while Moat was in Durham prison, serving 18 weeks for assault.
Chris had been living in a Gateshead flat and met Samantha while door-knocking to promote his martial arts classes for children.
To try to stop her ex-boyfriend from stalking her upon his release, she lied to Moat that her new partner was a police officer.
However, the former bouncer finished his sentence on July 1, 2010, and just two days later tracked down Samantha to the Birtley property.
Moat fatally shot Chris twice in the back and once in the head at point-blank range outside the home.
The deranged gunman then fired twice at Samantha through the front window of the property from outside.
But the makers of the new drama, made by the same crew behind smash-hit shows Line Of Duty, Bodyguard and Vigil, have revealed that Paul Gascoigne will not appear as a character in the new drama but reference will be made to him.
Matt was born in Durham, about an hour’s drive from the Northumberland village where police snipers surrounded the crazed Moat in the riverside siege.
He said: “I grew up on the periphery of it. It feels pretty close to home.”
The actor, who has had roles in The Bodyguard, Last Tango In Halifax, The Musketeers and Cursed, admits he had previously believed a sensationalised version of the story when he was cast as bodybuilder Moat.
He explains: “This story took place when social media was in its infancy.
“Before that, everyone relied on what the press said or what you said to each other in passing.
“This was a new version of the press, it’s now gone online, and it’s gone on social media.”
Matt said: “I was the victim of the sensationalised narrative that the story had become.
“I was thinking, ‘Wasn’t he 6ft 7ins, and some world-class weightlifter?.”
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‘TV SHOW WILL RAKE IT ALL BACK UP’
THE heartbroken family of Moat’s “forgotten victim” has hit out at the upcoming drama.
Sally Brown, Chris Brown’s grieving mother, sat down at her semi-detached home to talk to The Sun about her view of the new TV show.
The 71-year-old, who uses a walking stick, said she felt it was wrong to bring attention to the tragedy again.
At her home in Slough, Berks, she said: “We’re not really in agreement with it, it just rakes everything back up again.
“It’s been 13 years since Chris died. It’s hard enough to get through each year that goes by, it’s always just as hard, it doesn’t get easier.
“Someone contacted us, a man, and showed me the picture of the person who would play Moat in the drama.
“We just don’t agree with it – and who is going to play us? And the family? It is worrying.
“It doesn’t seem right if the family aren’t involved, how can they make this programme?
“It’s still like it all happened yesterday. It will be his birthday soon.
“My son was forgotten, it felt like he was just a number.
"Everyone goes on about Moat being this bloody hero.
"What about Chris?
“Moat’s sick fans gather to toast the man where he shot himself. It really upsets our family.
“The man is a cold killer who took my son away and shot two other people.
"Why celebrate this monster? It makes me weep inside.”
- Additional reporting: SUMMER RAEMASON
- The Hunt For Raoul Moat starts on ITV1 on April 16 at 9pm and will also be available on ITVX
