TV Pick of the Week: The Hunt for Raoul Moat - Review by Yvette Huddleston

Two days after being released from Durham Prison, where he had been serving a four-month sentence for assault, Raoul Moat tracked down and shot his ex-girlfriend Samantha Stobbart and her new partner Chris Brown. Stobbart was seriously injured and Brown died at the scene. Moat then went on the run, declaring a vendetta against the police – his third victim was police officer David Rathband who he shot at close range in his patrol car; Rathband survived but was left blind. Moat managed to evade police for six days until he was spotted and a stand-off ensued. It remains the biggest manhunt in British history.

Screenwriter Kevin Sampson’s script focusses on the victims and the police investigation which was conducted under the glare of both traditional mainstream media and social media. Moat (a chilling performance from Matt Stokoe) doesn’t appear until well into the first episode and the narrative is chiefly concerned with the effect of Moat’s actions on the families of Stobbart, Brown and Rathband. It also sensitively addresses the challenges facing the police as senior Northumbria police officer Neil Adamson (Lee Ingleby) and fellow officer Nisha Roberts (Vineeta Rishi) attempt to investigate against a backdrop of sensationalist national newspaper headlines and online provocation, with some hailing Moat as a heroic vigilante.

It is a fine line to tread, but Sampson, who also wrote the recent Hillsborough drama Anne, keeps the focus on the human story with the victims’ perspective to the fore. Sally Messham and Josef Davis give affecting performances as Stobbart and Brown whose relationship is cruelly cut short by the violent actions of Moat. Another thread follows local journalist Diane Barnwell (Sonya Cassidy) who is attempting to keep to the facts in her reporting while others, with less integrity, chase headlines without any thought of the effect on those close to the victims – or those who are trying to apprehend the killer.

In one scene we see an increasingly frustrated Adamson reading out some of the posts on Facebook to one of his colleagues with increasing disbelief and concern. What is perhaps most chilling is that 13 years on, the kind of online rhetoric that surrounds tragedies such as these is even more toxic.