ITV has announced the casting for true crime drama The Hunt for Raoul Moat as filming begins from Line of Duty studio World Productions.
Bodyguard and Misfits star Matt Stokoe is playing Moat, who was an ex-prisoner who killed his ex-girlfriend and wounded her new boyfriend and a policeman in a shooting spree before going on the run for nearly a week, eventually dying by suicide after a long standoff with police, back in 2010.
Related: Bodyguard season 2 "in due course", says producer
What to Read Next
Inspector George Gently and The A Word star Lee Ingleby will be playing Neil Adamson, a senior officer at Northumbria Police who led the search to find Moat while he was on the run.
The Man Who Fell to Earth's Sonya Cassidy and Vera's Vineeta Rishi have been cast as Diane Barnwell and Nisha Roberts, respectively. Finally, Doc Martin actress Sally Meesham and Chernobyl's Josef Davis are playing Moat's ex Samantha Stobbart and her boyfriend Christopher Brown.
The drama is said to begin with Samantha trying to get her life back together with a new partner after Moat was imprisoned, but four months later he gets released and decides to seek revenge after seeing that she has moved on without him.
Related: Line of Duty bosses fear show won't return
Screenwriter Kevin Sampson, who previously wrote the drama Anne, is quoted as saying: "The hunt for Raoul Moat gripped me from the start, as it was the first such case to be covered 'live' by the new 24-hour news channels in the UK.
"Even then, it interested me that Moat was being portrayed by some as a 'legend' in spite of the brutality of his crimes. In 2022, violence against women remains rife and is all too often accompanied by a victim-blaming agenda. I hope this drama will go some way to condemning this narrative."
Last Tango in Halifax and Line of Duty director Gareth Bryn will be directing the show, which is yet to receive an air date.
Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he's covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV and movies both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I'm a Fish.
