REVIEW: The Hunt For Raoul Moat (S1 E1/3)

Long-term readers will know my feelings about adaptations of true crime stories (mostly: why?), so I entered this new ITV three-parter with a certain amount of trepidation.

Most people my age (and younger) will remember the strange, terrifying manhunt for Raoul Moat – a thuggish former bouncer in the northeast of England who shot his ex-girlfriend, her new boyfriend and a policeman. The new boyfriend – Chris Brown – was killed instantly, while police officer David Rathband was blinded by the shooting and tragically and heartbreakingly died two years, by his own hand. Mercifully, Samantha Stobbart survived.

All these memories are relatively fresh, so the question once again is this: how long after an actual, real-life event can you ethically tell the story in a fictionalised fashion? The Raoul Moat case happened in 2010, and, quite naturally, residents of the towns Birtley of Rothbury and those affected by the shootings, the extreme trauma and the subsequent manhunt are up in arms at this three-parter.

Interestingly, the day after this series finishes (Wednesday), ITV is showing a documentary about the case. I always content that I’d rather watch a true-crime documentary than an adapted drama. We could get into the whys and why we like to watch true crime dramas but that would take another story.

I’m here to review this drama, so I’m going to be objective as possible.

To begin with, Samantha Stobbart (Sally Mesham) spots a fella posting flyers for his martial arts business as she sunbathes with a mate on the estate. The pair begin flirting and soon Samantha and Chris Brown (Josef Davis) become an item. And this is good – we get some context, we build up an emotional connection to these characters, and who we know will be eventual victims are represented well. Mesham, in particular, is terrific as Samantha Stobbart – full of life and personality, but also vulnerable and desperate for a break. A quiet, loving man, Brown is like a ray of sunshine in her life.

But it’s not long until she has to reveal the truth about her past. Her ex, and the father of her daughter, Raoul Moat (played here by Matt Stokoe) has been telephoning her non-stop on the eve of his release from prison, desperate to rekindle their relationship. Moat is, of course, a dangerous personality and does not take no for an answer when Samantha plucks up the courage to tell him that she’s seeing someone else. To discourage him from hassling her further, she tells him that her new man is a copper.

Big mistake: on top of everything, Raoul Moat has a disproportionate hatred of policemen.

A TV true crime adaptation can’t be a proper TV true crime adaptation, it seems, without showing the police screwing up at some stage during an investigation, and here it happens again – despite Moat making threats against Samantha upon his release, the report was not passed down through the chain. He walked free, obviously, and we all know what happened next.

I get a sense this might be the most interesting of the three episodes, as the case and subsequent manhunt really do take some strange, surreal turns from here on in. For now, we get a well-made retelling of the events, and some very good performances. Crime drama favourite Lee Ingleby also pops up as Neil Adamson, who headed up the investigation.

Paul Hirons

⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3 out of 5.

The Hunt For Raoul Moat is shown on ITV and ITVX in the UK