Newspapers often get a lot of stick - not least here and on our sister blog, Greenslade. But the case of John and Anne Darwin is a brilliant reminder of how newpapers sometimes provide unbeatable coverage of those you-couldn't-make-it-up stories.
The reappearance of John Darwin after five years of being missing, presumed dead, following a supposed canoeing accident was first reported by the Press Association late on Sunday night. It was a good story for all of Monday's papers. The following day it emerged that his wife, Anne, had just moved to Panama and the papers were full of comparisons with 70s sitcom character Reggie Perrin.
Yesterday was the bombshell day. First reporter David Leigh - not the Guardian's investigative ace, by the way - tracked down Anne in her Panama flat, giving the interview to the Daily Mirror and the Daily Mail.
Then, in "2am news" only in the final edition of the Mirror, a picture of the Darwins allegedly dating from last year showed them together in Panama. At a stroke it appeared to undercut her claims not to have seen her husband for five years and threw the story into totally new light. Meanwhile, John was arrested on suspicion of fraud.
The Mirror's sensational picture came to light in an extraordinarily elementary way. The paper reports today that an unnamed single mum just typed the words John, Anne and Panama into Google, and found the image on a property website. She then rang the police.
The photo has now been removed from the property website where it was originally discovered, according to today's Mirror. But not before the paper got hold of it and splashed on it, getting the paper's name on to those news bulletins that carried the image all of yesterday.
Again today David Leigh has come up with the goods for the Mirror and the Mail - an interview with Anne, complete with horrorstruck photos, in which she is reported to admit the authenticity of the picture. Both front pages are classics.
Now the couple's sons have released a statement through the police.
It's an amazing tale and the papers have led the way with coverage of the thunderbolt twists - a salutary contrast with the McCann case, which has involved only two real developments but generated reams of speculation and, I suspect, highly unreliable stories.
Sometimes the press deserves plaudits for the enterprising way in which it brings sensational stories out into the open with unrivalled panache, tenacity and dynamism.
