It’s finally here. Broadchurch Series 3 comes to viewers tonight (February 27) on ITV at 9pm, kicking off a final season of crime, twists and turns from writer Chris Chibnall to conclude what has been one of the most successful crime shows of all time.
Credit: ITV
What should we expect when the series makes its return, though? While quite a bit of that is still up in the air with incredible security procedures ensuring spoilers don’t make it to to the viewing public prematurely, we’ve got some brilliant teasers here from the cast and crew of the show to whet your appetite ahead of 9pm…
Chris Chibnall (Creator): “We start the final series in the trilogy three years on from the last series, five years on from the start. There is a bold new crime story which forces us to ask whether the town has a crack running through it caused by Danny Latimer’s death; is this new crime somehow the long-term legacy of that dark moment?”
Dan Winch (Producer): “There was one memorable scene where we had to weight a picnic blanket to the grass to avoid it flying off in the wind! In a new addition to the physical perspectives of Broadchurch, we worked with a drone camera this series. When working with a bit of kit such as this you’re reliant on perfect weather conditions. We managed to fly our drone up and down the coast and achieve some amazing images of the iconic cliffs, the bay and the rolling Dorset Hills.”
David Tennant (DI Alec Hardy): The relationship between Hardy and his daughter Daisy is a bigger part of this series, and of who he is, why he is trying to do what he is trying to do and it gives him a different perspective on things… It makes him all the more keenly aware of the idea that there may be a threat to women in the community, which is something he feels all the more acutely through Daisy’s presence. He is trying to be a dad and it is not something he has a lot of practice at – he is a decent bloke it, just doesn’t necessarily come so naturally to him.”
Olivia Colman (DS Ellie Miller): “We discover that her dad (Ellie’s) is living with her after her mum has passed, but I think she is finding family quite annoying. She is on her own so her dad’s help is great but her son… It’s not easy at the best of times for a teenager but he knows what his dad was put away for, so it’s pretty hard and he is becoming a bit of a pain in the backside. So it’s all quite trying for Ellie and I think it is probably quite nice for her to be at work.”
Julie Hesmondhalgh (Trish Winterman): “I was very interested in where it was going to go. I wanted to know what was going to happen to Trish. I was very aware, as a woman, that rape and serious sexual assault on TV can be very badly handled and the shoehorning in of it as entertainment is a thorny issue. But from the very start Chris (Chibnall) said to me that the main objective was to show how things have changed for people who have experienced sexual assault… The belief that you are telling the truth and you will be treated with dignity and respect. And whatever people say about it, and choose to take away from it, I think that is a really important thing to try and get across.”
Andy Buchan (Mark Latimer): “Mark is in a very dark place and is still battling with a lot of anger and depression. I think of all of the stages of grief, he is certainly nowhere near acceptance. Seeing Joe Miller walk free at the end of the last series was a very difficult pill for him to swallow. So he is in a huge emotional rut and I think the rest of the town have somehow managed to come to terms with it and move on and Mark hasn’t. He wants answers. And he has so many questions. It’s very slowly taking its toll on his and Beth’s relationship and that in itself is disintegrating. He is not in a good place at all. Chronologically things have definitely taken a turn for the worst since the last series for Mark.”
Jodie Whittaker (Beth Latimer): “She is never going to move forward. There isn’t going to be light, the light gets switched off and stays off after what happened but the thing for Beth is to keep trying rather than give in to it which is the difference between her and Mark at the beginning. Your life is never going to get any better but it could destroy everything or you could put all of your energies into trying to keep things together. So for Beth this job is a huge thing, because it is entering into a world of listening to other people’s pain. And this is exactly the kind of life I think Beth would choose. It’s nice to be playing someone you can invest in and not feel panicked about to make it work.”
Lenny Henry (Ed Burnett): “Ed Burnett is a widower who runs the farm shop and I think he is pretty much the only black guy within a 40-mile radius. He is short tempered and irritable but we don’t know much about him. He has been in the Broadchurch area for the past 10 or so years but, as with all of these seaside places, he is still seen as an outsider. He’s loyal to his staff and expects them to be loyal too. He doesn’t take any crap from anybody and he is not scared to stick up for himself. So Ed is very much the man who calls it when he sees it. He likes his staff but he works them pretty hard. He is a good boss but a strict boss.”
Sarah Parish (Cath Atwood): “Cath and Trish have been friends for a very long time and they get on very well. But underneath Cath thinks that she is a bit better than Trish. Trish is one of those friends that Cath can boss about a bit and tell her what to do and Trish goes along with that so it is not an equal relationship. I think Cath sometimes feels a bit sorry for Trish but they get on well.”
Georgina Campbell (DC Katie Harford): “Katie is a fresh vibrant new police officer on the scene trying to crack the case. She definitely has very strong opinions, I think you have to in that kind of work but I think her problem is she is quite young so she’s not had the experience that Hardy and Miller have, but wants to be treated with the same respect and do what she wants to do. She is very head strong and has her own ideas about leads and following clues and finding out who’s done what. She has great energy but sometimes due to her lack of experience it is slightly misplaced.”
Broadchurch Series 3 kicks off tonight at 9pm on ITV.
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