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Is Broadchurch a classic crime drama?

January saw the critically acclaimed and award winning Broadchurch return to our TV screens for a second series. There was a publicity blackout in an attempt to prevent spoilers or leaks; TV critics were not sent the usual preview DVDs. The opening episode sees Joe Miller plead not guilty to the murder of Danny Latimer, a shock as the previous season’s finale ended with his admission of guilt. The change of plea means that the programme shifts from police procedural to courtroom drama — both staples of the TV schedules. Witnesses have to give evidence, new information is revealed through cross-examination, and old scores settled by witnesses and barristers.

The Sandbrook case, which featured marginally in the first series chiefly as a device to explain DI Hardy’s (David Tennant) arrival at Broadchurch, now takes centre stage alongside the trial. This case revolves around the murder and disappearance of two cousins. Hardy found the body of the younger cousin, aged twelve, but the body of the second girl was never found. For some viewers, the Sandbrook case is less plausible than the murder of Danny Latimer but as a plot device it functions as a classic crime drama case that ‘got away’.

Sandbrook haunts DI Hardy for several reasons. He found the murdered girl who was the same age as his daughter — identification with a child victim is another typical plot device — and the man he thought was guilty walked free. He was professionally ridiculed for his failures in the national press. It is the case that broke him and almost literally it broke his heart — in this series we see him undergo a heart operation to have a pacemaker fitted. These murders are the case he can’t (and won’t) let go of, and one that he continues to illegally investigate. In this respect he is the classic maverick cop, sidestepping lawful and organizational boundaries to get to the truth. It is presented as a noble quest to amend for his previous failures and redeem himself but his actions could potentially lead to his own downfall.

Hardy’s sidekick DS Miller (Olivie Coleman) is equally seeking redemption for very different reasons. Married to the killer, the new series finds her completely ostracized from her community. Like many women in this situation, she is guilty by association. Although the earlier unmasking of her guilty husband shocked everyone in Broadchurch, there is an assumption that she must have known or suspected something. She has left her old job and home, and her eldest son Tom is refusing to live with her. The implication here is that all women know or should know what the man they are sleeping with, the father of their children, is capable of.

DS Miller is in a ‘no win’ situation. At the end of the first series she physically attacks her husband after she learns of his guilt, leading to his guilty plea being declared inadmissible evidence because of injuries sustained during her attack. This provokes Beth Latimer (Danny’s mother) to accuse DS Miller of deliberately hurting her husband to get him off the murder charge. There is also the consideration of her job: if she was a good police officer how did she miss the clues that her husband was a killer? A thread running through this series is that on some level, acknowledged or not, women always know.

Set in a fictional picturesque seaside town, Broadchurch has all the ingredients we love in a classic cop drama. Flawed, maverick, wounded in some way but essentially ‘good’ cops bringing killers to justice. Unlike some recent portrayals of cops on TV, Miller and Hardy do not seek solace in alcohol; giving too much to the job has not damaged their relationships. But essentially, the job remains the source of their damage and to some extent their downfall. Hardy’s professionalism has been questioned, his health damaged, and his marriage ended because of the Sandbrook murders. Miller’s emotional fragility stems from her husband’s guilt and self-blame, leading to her multiple losses as a police officer, wife, and mother. Ultimately, like most good dramas, Broadchurch succeeds through a plot revolved around relationships, love, loss, redemption, and a good cliffhanger.

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