Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Cast: David Tennant, Olivia Coleman, Andrew Buchan, Jodie Whittaker, Arthur Darvill, Tracey Childs, Matthew Gravelle, Peter De Jersey, Will Mellor, Jonathon Bailey, Charlotte Beaumont, Joe Simms, Carolyn Pickles, Pauline Quirke, Joe Sims, Jacob Anderson.
It is no wonder that David Tennant’s character, D.I. Alec Hardy, has been showing all the signs of a man crumbling under the pressure when the viewer considers all of what has been happening in the town of Broadchurch. It runs much deeper than that though; this is a man who has been carrying the mistakes of others, including so it appears, his ex-wife’s, a long protracted investigation whilst still trying to deal with a family who he let down before and now the sound of a ticking clock, both in health terms and in his career.
Broadchurch has many secrets but it certainly seems that some of the people who were from outside of the town are the ones with heaviest baggage of them all. Alongside Alec Hardy’s suffering, Pauline Quirke’s marvellous portrayal of a woman demonized and in search of her own redemption has made this former comedy star an actor of great depth. Unlikeable, twisted but with the one thought of if she could have saved her family gives her a Dickensian feel, the woman who is trying to atone for the sins of the past but for whom have eaten her soul, Pauline Quirke has played this demon of a woman with great concentration and unyielding acting prowess.
The main question who of who killed Danny Latimer has been on the lips of everyone has caught this riveting series but one seems to have been evaded, skillfully it seems by the writers, the question of who and how is a backdrop, a questioners morsel, a scrap of information before the very real question of why? Why seems to have been dismissed, evaded, disappeared into thin air like the evidence in a previous case.
As audiences eagerly await the final episode, perhaps the greatest part of this programme, its chilling achievement is how it has made people forget to ask why.
Broadchurch concludes next Monday.
Ian D. Hall