I know people will probably be sick of hearing about this now- but I must give a massive round of applause to ITV for their phenomenal British drama, Broadchurch.
Monday saw the highly anticipated finale of the series which captured the nations attention, devotion and imagination. Even the adverts had our hearts racing with the promise that we would finally get ‘closure’- and that we did! Miss Marple may be a bit outdated now, but there is no denying that after this roller coaster eight-week series, we really do love a good murder mystery.
The story was based in a sleepy seaside town in Dorset, where the murder of 11 year old Danny Latimer shocked the local community and had us raising our suspicions to every character we were introduced to. Within the main storyline there were many other scandals including an affair, past crimes and family rifts, all adding to the motives behind the murder. Every Monday evening saw Twitter filled with ‘#whodunnit’ questions and allegations with everyone voicing their opinions. We were a nation gripped!
It wasn’t until the penultimate episode that our suspicions were pointed, probably for the first time, in the direction of seemingly innocent Joe Miller, husband to detective Ellie who was working on the case. From the outset of the final episode it was clear all was about to be revealed, and after a tense wait whilst tracking Danny’s mobile phone- we were finally given some answers.
Although we should have been relieved and elated at the conclusion, there was a great deal of sympathy for Ellie Miller (played by Olivia Colman) who had been living with her husband unaware of his devastating actions. There has already been a lot of BAFTA-related talk regarding Colman, and I have to agree that her acting definitely deserves industry recognition after a compelling, but more importantly, totally believable performance.
The series didn’t disappoint and I think ITV can certainly call it a triumph. There are already rumours of a second series, and although I would love to see something like this return, I hope it doesn’t spoil the success of Broadchurch. I don’t quite know what I’m going to do Mondays at 9pm now!