STACK NZ Apr #61

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with CHRIS CHIBNALL

I n Broadchurch , just about everybody seems to be hiding a secret of some sort. So in some ways, it’s not surprising that a similar sort of secrecy pervades the TV production as a whole. For example, in the first series – in which detectives Alec Hardy (David Tennant) and Ellie Miller (Olivia Coleman) hunt the murderer of a young boy in a sleepy coastal town – the cast were kept in the dark about the identity of the killer right until to the very end of shooting. And writer and creator Chris Chibnall was also keeping resolutely tight-lipped in interviews before the start of the second season, declining to even reveal the time frame in which the new series was set in relation to the first. “I think you don’t want to be secret just for the sake of it,” he explains. “The purpose of the secrecy is can we get this story to the audience without them knowing what it is before they see it, because nowadays there’s so many spoilers. It just feels like what the audience responded to in the first series of Broadchurch was they didn’t know what was coming. “Funnily enough on the first series it was a bit of fun not telling the actors who the killer was; it was about secrecy, but it was also keeping some ambiguity in their performances. Everybody sort of bought into it, to be honest, which I was quite surprised about. We told them when they joined the project and they were like ‘okay that’s cool’.” Of course, by now most people will probably know that the second series of Broadchurch continues a few months after the end of the first one, with old wounds being reopened when the murder trial begins and the accused killer shocks everyone in the community by pleading not guilty. At the same time, Hardy persuades a reluctant Miller to help him in an off-the-books investigation into the unsolved murder case which prompted his transfer to the town of Broadchurch. As well as Tennant and Coleman, most of the main characters from the first series have returned for the second season, including

new things. I knew she hadn’t done a British long form television series and I just thought ‘let’s give it a go’. Luckily Broadchurch, the first series, was going out in France just as we had started talking to her, so she had watched the first couple of episodes whilst she was waiting for our English DVDs to arrive. “She’s an incredibly rich and complex performer. Also the thing about Charlotte – which I think you don’t see that often on screen with her – is she’s very funny, so there’s a real gentle humour to that character as well that she really brings in. We were all jumping up and down with excitement.” With its dark tone and its focus on human drama, Broadchurch has been seen by many as the UK’s answer to acclaimed Nordic Noir series such as The Killing ; like the latter, the English show has been an international hit and has already inspired a number of remakes. However, Chibnall downplays the influence of Scandinavian crime shows on Broadchurch . “It’s less the Nordic noir for me, because I’ve wanted to do this for about ten years but nobody was interested, frankly. For me, there’s two big shows historically: one of which is Twin Peaks , just in terms of that single murder, a community, a story about a town. The other one is a show Steven Bochco did called Murder One , which was one case over 22 episodes. So those are the two that I think I must really be lodged in me as a writer. “And the thing about both those shows is they’re quite cheeky in their storytelling. I like a nice cliffhanger: emotion and truth is really important but also big narrative twists. We’re all story addicts and I loved that those shows did that and I think that informs Broadchurch as well.”

Jodie Whitaker and Andrew Buchan as the murdered boy’s parents, and Arthur Darvill as the local vicar. However, there are also plenty of new faces, too: Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Charlotte Rampling play the rival barristers trying the murder case, while Eve Myles and James D’Arcy join the cast as key figures in the new murder investigation. Chibnall was delighted that the French- based Rampling agreed to sign on for the show, even though he was doubtful they would be able to get her. “I think some actors are quite adventurous and want to try

• Broadchurch: Series 2 is out now on DVD

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