ITV Raul Moat drama cut Paul Gascoigne storyline amid fears it would ‘downplay’ killer’s story

As snipers set their sights on Raoul Moat, Paul Gascoigne made a bizarre appearance. He showed up with beer and chicken while begging cops to allow him to help the killer.

But the unpredictable turn of events in one of Britain’s biggest ever manhunts has been left out of an upcoming ITV drama amid fears it might have ‘downplayed’ the story.

Matt Stokoe will play the infamous gunman who shot and wounded his ex-girlfriend Sam Stobbart, then 22, before shooting her partner Chris Brown, 29, to death in July 2010, just 48 hours after being released from prison.

He later shot and blinded PC David Rathband after stalking him as he sat in his car at a roundabout. He took his own life 19 months later.

A seven-day manhunt ensued before Moat was cornered on a riverbank in Rothbury, Northumberland. He shot himself with a sawed-off shotgun after a six-hour standoff in which Gascoigne tried to reach out to rescue him.

The former footballer, who was using cocaine at the time, brought Moat “a can of lager, some chicken, a cell phone and something to keep him warm” and a fishing rod and told local radio stations that he knew him.

But the bizarre incident is only mentioned in The Hunt for Raoul Moat, with producers seeking to “correct” public perceptions of the story in an effort to honor Brown.

Executive producer Kevin Sampson said: “Anyone I contacted who wasn’t closely involved, the first thing they’d say was ‘oh the one Gaz showed up with a fishing rod’.

“That absolutely undermines and trivializes the tragedy of what really happened and if there’s one mission it’s to challenge people to rethink and reassess the way they look back on these events…

‘[Brown’s family] were very, very supportive… Their point of view was that they would like Chris to be honored and remembered and they don’t want him to just be ‘the guy who shot Raoul Moat’. Fellow executive producer Jake Lushington added, “It wasn’t the focus and it was unnecessarily blown up.” So we called it a report… It had a huge impact on the public perception of that story. We try to rectify that and show a different view of events.’ Stokoe, whose partner is Peaky Blinders actress Sophie Rundell, said he spent time in a “decompression chamber” to escape Moat during filming and claimed he felt oppressed by the killer’s Mohawk.

“I was in a pretty robust place when I went in, but osmosis kind of creeps in with sadness…” he said.

“There’s an increasing pressure that’s building…I’ve never been one of those people who go to a dark place…but by the end of the job, as dramatic as it sounds, I almost felt like my central nervous system didn’t really know the difference, as if I had experienced a heavy, sad grief or loss.

“It took me a few weeks to realize I was almost grumbling and feeling sorry for myself even though I had nothing to say… I had to spend some time almost in a decompression chamber to get myself out of that state of mind.” He said shaving off Moat’s Mohawk was “pretty cleansing,” adding, “The infamous Mohawk, orange t-shirt look felt really oppressive towards the end, so it was nice to be able to literally get all of that out when we packed.’ Stokoe, whose credits include Bodyguard and ITV drama Grace, said it was ‘very disheartening’ to take on Moat as he had to ‘recreate it convincingly without just giving an impression of what I thought he would be like’.

Moat’s family was made aware of the three-part drama as a “duty of care” to his children.

Last year, Rathband’s brother Darren said he wouldn’t be watching. “We as a family don’t need any other reminders of what happened in 2010,” he told Chronicle Live. “The loss of David gives us a painful memory every day. If it’s based on facts and not fiction, the story stays the same.’ About 30,000 people joined the Facebook tribute group “RIP Raoul Moat You Legend!” in the wake of Moat’s death before it was quickly removed.

Multiple ‘Raoul Moat’ profiles with photos of the killer still exist on Twitter.