Paul ‘Gazza’ Gascoigne bizarrely ended up being present during a stand-off between killer Raoul Moat and the police.
are retelling the story of the criminal case in The Hunt for Raoul Moat, where one man sparked after killing one person and wounding two others in a two-day shooting spree.
The TV show creators have decided to omit Paul’s appearance, as it has ‘nothing to do’ with the story they are telling.
Producer Jake Lushington said: ‘What happened with Paul Gascoigne is nothing to do with the story we’re trying to tell and had no impact.’
They instead want to focus on correcting public perception, and avoiding trivialisation.
Screenwriter Kevin Sampson added: ‘Paul Gascoigne was really not in a great place… you would have to question your motives and intention in potentially sending up somebody who was going through a bad time’, reports .
Paul will instead be just a small mention.
The former professional footballer turned up to the river bank when police were trying to negotiate a surrender from Moat claiming to be his brother.
At the time he said that he had brought him a can of lager, some chicken, a fishing rod, a Newcastle shirt and a dressing gown, but was denied access.
He later spoke about the fact he had been deep in a period of addiction at the time, and became so high on cocaine he convinced himself he knew Moat.
Speaking at an ‘Evening with Paul Gascoigne’ he explained the bizarre decision.
‘You’ve got to realise I’m half cut anyway, sitting in the living room, I’ve got about six lines [of cocaine] lined up.
Upon taking more of the Class-A drug he then believes they are siblings.
‘I’ve had 14 lines now and he’s my brother,’ he recalled.
Paul spoke to his taxi driver his intentions. ‘I told him: “Listen, I have been through so much, I am the best therapist in the world, I can save him.”
‘I think that I genuinely believed that,’ he added to .
He was sent home by the police, and woke up the next morning to ‘250 missed calls’ after his appearance was documented on news channels.
For seven days Raoul evaded police capture while at the same time issuing threats that he was willing to and would even do the same to members of the public.
The Hunt for Raoul Moat airs Sunday at 9pm on ITV.
