Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: David Tennant, Olivia Coleman, Andrew Buchan, Jodie Whittaker, Arthur Darvill, Eve Myles, Charlotte Beaumont, Lucy Cohu, Joe Sims, Carolyn Pickles, Jonathan Bailey, Tanya Franks, Simone McAullay, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, James D’Arcy, Charlotte Rampling, Meera Syal, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, William Andrews, Matthew Gravelle, Adam Wilson, Shaun Dooley, Amanda Drew, Eliza Bennett, Hollie Burgess.

At some point the healing process has to begin, it must be seen to mend and restore; however before it does, like a scab that you cannot help but pick at, the blood-letting must continue and at times it may feel like the hurting will never stop.

For each new revelation that finds itself being unfolded and let loose in the courtroom and detective drama that the second series of Broadchurch has become, the more down a very dark road the whole town finds itself. Lies and half truths, innuendoes and suppositions all poke their head above the trenches and it takes a keen eyed and absolute resolute armchair detective to see through the ever circling and tightening mist and red herrings that Chris Chibnall has laid out before them.

With series two of Broadchuch three quarters of the way through its run, the truth seems as far away as news of a disaster from an ancient shoreline in the minds of Victorian England. Yet the clues are being presented and what seemed like just a throw away connection at first for former D.I. Alec Hardy in him harbouring the wife of the main suspect, is now turning out to be disturbing and feral. Just the merest glimpse of the animal ferocity between Eve Myles and James D’ Arcy’s characters, is enough to want them to be guilty of something but that is a path in which supposition of a decent Queen’s Counsel would surely take, or that of the tabloid press. Both Eve Myles and James D’Arcy have been instrumental in keeping this particular angle of interest going and it has made for disconcerting contrast as Alec Hardy’s life has been slowly ebbing away.

In the courtroom the public disclosures are coming thick and fast and it is in the Miller’s son to whom much of the basis of malcontent was based. In a hammerblow for parents up and down the country, Olivia Coleman’s long awaited outburst towards her screen son’s spotlight seeking attention finally boiled over and it would have been a crime against decent television drama had it never appeared.

Grief is there to make the pain real but also to start the healing process; Broadchurch with all its secrets stumbling out onto the sandy beach might take longer to recover than is healthy.

The penultimate episode of Broadchurch series two is on next Monday.

Ian D. Hall