The Hunt for Raoul Moat writer is 'challenging viewers to think again'
The new ITV drama has been produced with the victims' stories in mind, according to screenwriter Kevin Sampson.
Premiering this weekend and then consecutively across three nights, The Hunt For Raoul Moat is ITV's latest true crime drama set to explore Britain's biggest, headline-grabbing manhunt.
The 2010 manhunt lasted seven days and ended in Moat's death but the new drama is set to explore "the human tragedies" behind the manhunt and will be told through the eyes of those who sought to bring a violent killer to justice, including the police and press.
As well as having a cast led by Lee Ingleby (Inspector George Gently) as senior Northumbria police detective Neil Adamson, the three-part drama comes from acclaimed producers World Productions and has been written by Anne screenwriter Kevin Sampson.
Speaking to RadioTimes.com and other press in a Q&A for the series, Sampson spoke about his motivations to bring this case to life on screen.
He said: "In terms of why this and why now, the idea really came in the wake of lockdown – there was an escalation in cases of domestic violence and that was something I had a real interest in. We'd been talking about ways of platforming issues like this."
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He continued: "The whole thing coalesced from there, it was the coming together of things like 'fake news', the influence of social media, the almost trivialisation of crimes against women generally, and crimes in the home as well.
"On top of that, it was such a potent and unique case... it struck me that all of those threads could come together and make something that was a real, powerful and yet sensitive drama that highlighted some of those things. And perhaps challenge our audience to think again about how they view cases like this.”
The innocent victims of Moat’s crimes included Christopher Brown, Samantha Stobbart and PC David Rathband, but their stories are often forgotten in the light of the attention-grabbing headlines and social media rumours that circulated the case at the time.
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Speaking about working on the drama, World Productions producer Jake Lushington said: "The crimes at the centre of this story and the motive behind that were not that well-known by most people. I think the audience will know relatively little about that while thinking they know a lot about this story.
"I don't think I've ever worked on something which is so well acknowledged in the public consciousness but is actually so little known about."
The drama doesn't seek to platform Moat's actions, according to Sampson and Lushington, but instead bring in a point of view that has been left out of the memory of the case.
When asked about the fact that Moat's name is in the title of the new series, Lushington said: "How do you not make it about somebody when their name is in the title? Our stories are about a point of view.
"So the first episode begins from Samantha Stobbart's point of view at the start of what is a love story involving her and Christopher Brown. The police don't arrive until part three of the first episode.
"In the way in which people view and understand the story, that's quite radical to do. The story of Chris Brown, who was shot and killed by Moat, has very largely been ignored and he was forgotten."
The Hunt for Raoul Moat begins airing on ITV1 at 9pm on Sunday 16th April. For more news, interviews and features, visit our Drama hub or find something to watch now with our TV Guide and Streaming Guide.
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