Sounds like ‘Today in Parliament’ !!
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Mr F I watched official secrets last night it was excellent. I think I’ll watch it again .
It really had me glued to the sofa . Its quite shocking to be lied to so openly by Blairs government
Edited to add why do the British people just sit back and allow this to happen and then forget about it ?
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I have watched two episodes. The atmosphere of it, is very dull and drab but the actors are brilliant.
How on earth did no one recognise the husband when he came back to live next door?
I must admit when the police came to search the house I thought it a little unbelievable that they did not find the connecting doors? 
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In real life she did go to prison for 6 years over this.
I’m with you Muddy.
Well, like all prisoners, she served half of that.
We weren’t particularly bothered about watching it but, having watched the 1st episode, we were hooked. I couldn’t believe what a snide little twerp of a man he was/still is. (Having divorced in prison, he went to the Philippines on his release where he married a Philippina. His 1st wife remains unmarried.)
And how short are people’s memories? I’m thinking about all the hoohah about “Partygate”.
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I wonder how the two nice sons coped with this situation and if they see their mother now .
Funny what greed can make you do isnt it
They disowned her when she was convicted but have since reconciled and she sees her grandchildren
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I’m told hers is the voice-over
Yes, Marge and I watched this.
A very good short series.
Well I really enjoyed that . Who would have thought it . I wonder if the insurance money was ever reclaimed .
It was so well done wasnt it…ended up she got a longer sentence than him which surprised me.
It must be hard on them all though it being raked up again after all this time.I expect they would prefer it to just go away
Yes, the insurance money, plus the other false “death” claims Anne had made from pension funds and DSS, was repaid from the confiscation and sale of assets they had left in Panama.
Also, the “proceeds of crime” rules meant the couple were ordered to repay any profits they had made as a result of the original fraud.
As they were on the brink of bankruptcy when John faked his death, I think the “proceeds of crime” calculation included any extra profits they had made from the subsequent sale of their various UK properties, compared to what their value would have been at the time John faked his own death.
Most of this money was recovered by confiscating all the assets Anne Darwin had but that wasn’t enough to repay the whole amount owing.
I believe the amount Anne made fraudulent claims for was about £250,000 but including any debts automatically cancelled by John’s death and the other “profits from crime”, the court decided that Mr Darwin had benefited by a total of £679,194.62. As all assets were put in his wife’s name after his faked death, he had no assets they could confiscate.
The court therefore made an order against him for £1 allowing the CPS to amend the order should any assets, such as a pension, become available.
In 2014, when he was due to receive a private pension of £40,000, this was confiscated by the Court in part payment of his debt.
The CPS reported then that a total of £541,762.39 had been repaid by the couple and they had no personal assets left.
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I wonder if programme makers have to seek permission from the real people and/or their families before they make any plays/films about their lives?
That is very interesting thankyou
I dont think they do Mups…as long as they stick to the facts and don’t make things up its all in the public domain
I tried to watch last nights program supposedly the true story but found it utter tosh, a bunch of silly camera angles and tricks, people walking to chairs before saying something that added nothing to the story and poor editing overall.
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Exactly my thoughts too @MrFraggle67 I was looking forward to a documentary that would fill in the gaps left out by the series (ie. how the money was repaid, Darwin’s relationship with his sons now he lives in the Philippines and so on) but it was, as you said, utter tosh. Talking heads of some of those involved giving them their 2 minutes of fame.
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