Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: David Tennant, Olivia Coleman, Jodie Whittaker, Andrew Buchan, Charlotte Beaumont, Matthew Gravelle, Tanya Franks, Meera Syal, Carolyn Pickles, Jonathan Bailey, Joe Sims, Arthur Darvill, Simone McAullay, Charlotte Rampling, Eve Myles, William Andrews, Paul Blackwell, James D’Arcy, Peter De Jersey, Janet Dibley, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Simone McAullay, .
Who’s to blame when an alleged killer is liable to walk free when overwrought and built up emotions are fully bared out for public consumption? The sensible, rational and unimpaired face of judgement we sometimes are forced to wear by society’s expectation comes crashing down and in a single action, an unhindered show of emotions, a case against a killer throws everything into question.
For the people of Broadchurch, the unknown actions of detective Ellie Miller as she beat up her husband in the interview room after he confessed to the killing of the Latimer child are now as repugnant to them as all the secrets that the town holds in its collective bosom.
Writer Chris Chibnall has really managed to stir up a hornet’s nest in the continuing story to the phenomenally absorbing and successful Broadchurch and has dipped the viewer’s heads into the murky depths of their own punishing grievances and accusations once again but this time deeper and with more venom as prejudices are played out and more questions come to light.
With the court room stunned by the retired Detective Inspector Alec Hardy’s revelations of his colleague’s actions in the interview room, the story sets a pace in which Chris Chibnall asks the viewers to question their own intolerance and preconceptions. Whether it is right for the defence to put in the mind of the jury, the seemingly fatal long term abuse by the one off action of a father hitting his son or the question of decency of Hardy’s insistence of getting Miller to revisit her old house in order to help another enquiry in which the suspect is still at large.
Television drama rarely grips the viewer’s attention like Broadchurch has managed to do. Unashamed brilliance from a top quality writer and acted with supreme measure and gravitas by all in the cast.
Broadchurch continues next Monday.
Ian D. Hall