Mallorca´s starring role

Jason Moore27/09/2024 14:49Updated at 15:21

Mallorca has a starring role in the new ITV series, Joan, based on the true story of master-criminal Joan Hannington, a figure known as 'the Godmother' by certain elements of the British underworld. Starring Sophie Turner, of Game of Thrones fame it has been adapted from Hannington's 2004 memoir I Am What I Am: The True Story of Britain's Most Notorious Jewel Thief. Filming took place on the island earlier this year.

Joan Hannington was born into poverty but made her fortune in the 1980s when she began stealing diamonds from luxury jewellery shops across London, swallowing them and switching them for fakes.

Her criminal exploits meant that she lived a life of luxury, driving a Ferrari, and at one point owning 11 fur coats and 2,000 pairs of shoes. To avoid detection, however, she continued living in her London home despite having more than £800,000 worth of jewels concealed in a biscuit tin buried in her garden.

A series of beach scenes were filmed on the island because at one stage Hannington fled to Spain. Exclusive pictures take for the Bulletin show Sophie Turner on a Mallorca beach.