Joan spoilers follow.
The new six-part ITV drama Joan is inspired by the memoir of the real-life Joan Hannington, who labelled herself "Britain's most notorious diamond thief".
Sophie Turner plays Joan in the new drama and spent time with the real Hannington before the cameras started rolling, having read her memoir several times to get into character.
Hannington operated in the '80s, before the widespread use of CCTV and computerised inventories for stocktaking in jewellers, so the diamonds she pinched were never missed.
The show's screenwriter Anna Symon met with Hannington to get approval for adapting her memoir, Joan: The True Story of How I Became Britain's Most Notorious Diamond Thief, which has been updated and re-released to coincide with the show.
At a Q&A ahead of the drama's release, Symon told Digital Spy and other press: "We met in a café in north London. I was quite nervous. A, having read her book and hearing about some of the crimes that she'd done, and B, obviously wanting her approval.
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"Luckily, she approved of my ideas. The first thing she said was, 'I don't want you to do this unless you're going to tell the warts and all,' by which she meant that she wanted her childhood included in it, which we come on to more later in the series.
"I think she wanted people to know this behaviour came from somewhere, and I would have done that anyway, because I wanted to tell the true story of Joan. I wanted to tell the truth of the unbelievable complexity within her character."
Joan true story
Hannington grew up the youngest of six children in west London and had an abusive childhood at the hands of her father. She ran away from home aged 13 and later married Ray Pavey, a convicted armed robber, who was also abusive, as the ITV drama shows.
The couple had a daughter, Debbie, before their marriage disintegrated and a desperate Hannington turned to social services, who took Debbie into care.
The subsequent events in Hannington's life stick fairly close to the first episode of the ITV drama, as Symon explained: "The swallowing of the diamonds actually happened, the stealing of the car to go and visit her daughter when she was in foster care, and then being arrested for that because the car was stolen.
"So many things in that first episode in particular were absolutely straight from, ripped from, the real world."
In a 2004 interview, Hannington said: "I just saw those diamonds and I saw a flat, and some money, and getting Debbie back. And then, after a while, when it became obvious I wasn't going to get her back, I just thought, f**k it, I'm going to have a brilliant life, then."
That included meeting the man who went on to become her second husband and partner in crime one night in a local pub, Ronald Thomas Hannington, also known as Benny Boisie.
An antiques dealer and a thief 17 years Hannington's senior, he taught her the tricks of the trade and supported her efforts to get Debbie back, even if these ultimately came to nothing.
Hannington was 24 years old when she was arrested for using a stolen chequebook in 1980. She married Boisie in Acton Register Office and two weeks later was sentenced to 30 months in prison.
They went on to have a son, Benny, together and when Joan was released she got another job at a jewellery store without disclosing her criminal record. Here, she continued to nab jewels.
The initial swallowing of the diamonds became a blueprint for how Hannington conducted her crimes, as she would down items of jewellery and replace them with convincing fakes, which were miraculously never detected.
She would check into lavish hotels like the Savoy and pretend to be a well-off tourist before she went into the jewellers. Hannington said she practised generating saliva in her mouth so she could swallow several rings at once.
At the height of her spree, Hannington has said over £800,000 worth of gems were buried in a biscuit tin in her garden, which she went on to sell.
She said of that period of her life (via The Sun): "To be a woman doing that sort of thing in those days wasn't the norm, but it was an amazing buzz. I didn't have to sleep with someone for their money. I had my own money, bought my own cars and fur coats."
Where is Joan Hannington now?
After her husband Boisie died while trying to set fire to a building for insurance money, Hannington decided to get her life in order and step away from criminality.
"The money never brought me any happiness," she said later in an interview. "I just wanted to prove I could raise a good child in a straight world."
Hannington has been involved in parts of the promotion of Joan and attended a launch of the show alongside her son Benny.
She said at the event: "I'm not complacent about it. I've led a certain life, although I've been retired 40 years. This was all in the '80s and to be sitting here at 68 with my son and my granddaughter – I'm not a showbiz-y person, I'm a very private person, and I just find it amazing."
She added of the ITV drama: "I think everybody here knows me well enough to know if I didn't like it, I'd say so. It's fantastic. All the actors – big parts, the little parts – the writers, all of them have just done an amazing job.
The show's producer Ruth Kenley-Letts told The Independent of Hannington: "Whenever you see her, she’s always very dressed up. She loves dressing up, and that's the same now she's in her sixties as it was when she was in her twenties.
"She's a huge character. She's very funny, and she doesn't miss a trick. When she walks into a room it's like, Joan has arrived. She's really honest about her life, and she's also somebody with quite a hot temper. So if you get on the wrong side of her, beware. She's tough!"
Where is Joan's daughter now?
Hannington's memoir was published in 2002, and she began trying to connect with her daughter Debbie.
While promoting her book, Hannington said she had found love again and her son Benny was working as a builder. It's understood he lives near his mother, who's based by the coast with her dogs.
Hannington also said she had met Debbie, although it's unclear what the state of their relationship is now.
Read more on Joan
- Sophie Turner says being a mother helped scenes in new ITV drama
- Sophie Turner shares the special cameo in new ITV crime drama
Joan airs its first episode on ITV1 on September 29, with all six episodes becoming available on ITVX after episode one airs. The drama will be aired on The CW in the US.
Previously Deputy TV Editor at Digital Spy and, before that, a TV Reporter at The Mirror, Rebecca can now be found crafting expert analysis of the TV landscape, when she's not talking on the BBC or Times Radio about everything from the latest season of Bridgerton or The White Lotus to whatever chaos is unfolding in the various Love Island villas. When she's not bingeing a boxset, in-the-wild sightings of Rebecca have included stints on the National TV Awards and BAFTAs red carpets, and post-match video explainers of the reality TV we're all watching.
