Broadchurch: Episode 1.1

Broadchurch: Episode 1.1
ITV
7 August 2013
Crime Drama
DVD
B

Recurring cast:

• Jacob Anderson as Dean Thomas (and ironically Alfred Enoch is credited in just this episode as Sam Taylor)
• Lee Asquith-Coe as a nameless Broadchurch Police Officer
• Jonathan Bailey as Olly Stevens
• Charlotte Beaumont as Chloe Latimer
• Steve Bennett as PC Bob Daniels
• David Bradley (yes, Filch) as Jack Marshall
• Susan Brown as Liz Roper
• Andrew Buchan as Mark Latimer
• Tracey Childs as CS Elaine Jenkinson
• Olivia Colman as Ellie Miller
• Chris Cowlin as a nameless Police Officer
• Arthur Darvill as Rev. Paul Coates
• Peter De Jersey as SOCO Brian Young
• Matthew Gravelle as Joe Miller
• Simon Ludders as Trevor Smith
• Simone McAullay as Becca Fisher
• Oskar McNamara as Danny Latimer (the victim and yet we'll see him again, even into the third series, presumably flashbacks)
• Will Mellor as Steve Connelly
• Carolyn Pickles as Maggie Radcliffe (and another Harry Potter connection, as she was Charity Burbage)
• Pauline Quirke as Susan Wright
• Joe Sims as Nige Carter
• David Tennant as D.I.* Alec Hardy
• Vicky McClure as Karen White
• Simon Rouse as Len Danvers
• Jodie Whittaker as Beth Latimer
• Adam Wilson as Tom Miller
• Benji Yapp as Fred Miller

Also, Clem So, who's Townsfolk Driver here, would later be simply Townsfolk.

It takes awhile for things to build but I was increasingly drawn in by this story of detective work in a small coastal town where an 11-year-old boy has died mysteriously.  I like that the human element is equally important, how people feel as well as how they think.  I'm suspicious of Danny's dad, although it's possible he committed adultery rather than murder.  This programme ran for three series, spaced two years apart, and my guess is that Danny's death will be resolved at the end of this eight-episode run and then in 2015 a new crime will be investigated.

Chris Chibnall wrote this and most of the other episodes.  James Strong directed.


*I think Detective Inspector.