Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: David Tennant, Olivia Coleman, Andrew Buchan, Jodie Whittaker, Tracy Childs, Will Mellor, Arthur Darvill, David Bradley, Jonathon Bailey, Vicky McClure, Charlotte Beaumont, Joe Simms, Carolyn Pickles, Pauline Quirke.

With the premise having been set in episode one, the attention of the police and in particular D.I. Hardy, start to focus their attentions on the people of Broadchurch, especially those it seems with secrets, many long held, secrets that may fragment the community they live in.

The show has already gained a loyal following and it can only be good for genre that at the same time on the B.B.C. Douglas Henshall was playing another detective the far opposite sides of the British Isles in Shetland. Whereas once upon a time this would have divided the loyalties of those who revel in the crime drama, now thankfully the public is able to watch both. Disparate in their outlook both rely on the bankability and screen presence of the two Scottish actors to take up the mantle of the outsider looking in. In Broadchurch, this falls firmly on the shoulders of David Tennant.

David Tennant made a huge impact on the television viewers for the last decade, slowly building up his fantastic reputation on and off screen but as the brooding detective it ould be one of the most challenging parts he has had the pleasure to act as. Away from Doctor Who where the pressure on him to succeed was incredible and yet superbly managed, this part, whilst not as intense as playing the tenth Doctor still brings its own physical and unrelenting pressure and he has risen to the challenge with ease.

Just 48 hours in the discovery of the child’s body being found on the beach, D. I. Hardy, Tennant, starts to feel the weight of the town unconsciously closing ranks around him. They want the murderer found but not at the expense of their own lives being uprooted and changed as one of the members of the community plainly puts it, that the recession has bit deep, this will send it over the edge.

Chris Chibnall’s script has got it all; the dynamic between Hardy and his subordinate Detective Miller is first class without ever spilling over into territory that would be formulaic or contrived. The tension between the officer passed over for promotion and the man in her place is bubbling away under the surface and Olivia Coleman is only ever one more reminder of this fact from really letting rip into everybody around her. It is a situation that looks brutal already.

Secrets are pouring out from inside the dead child’s home life as well with both his mother and father fracturing at the seams and his sister carrying a big dirty secret also. What really goes on behind the curtains of modern day town and country living?  No one really knows but surely someone start to stand out as the main culprit soon.

Episode Three of Broadchurch is on next Monday.

Ian D. Hall