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June 25, 2015
In The Mix

Murder, He Wrote

From the idyllic shores of the English Channel comes the killer hit Broadchurch.

Maria Neuman

Chris Chibnall can keep a secret. “Nobody gets anything out of me,” says the creator, writer and executive producer of the ITV–BBC America crime drama Broadchurch.

During the series’ first season, which tracked the murder of an 11-year-old boy and its emotional aftermath, Chibnall kept viewers — as well as the cast and crew — in the dark about the killer throughout most of the eight episodes.

“Only a handful of people knew who the murderer was,” says Chibnall, who has also written for Law & Order: UK and Doctor Who. “People would ask, and I just learned to say no. I love that the first people who get to see the story unfold as it’s happening was everyone on set.”

That meant when Chibnall was casting the drama (which won three BAFTA Awards last year, including best drama), none of the actors — including stars David Tennant, as Detective Inspector Alec Hardy, and Olivia Colman, as Detective Sergeant Ellie Miller — knew exactly where the story was headed. “When I phoned everyone to tell them about our decisions, I also added that they might be the killer.”

Jump to season two, which aired in the U.S. this past spring. After Miller’s husband (Matthew Gravelle) was revealed as the killer, the story led swiftly into a courtroom drama.

Looking back on the first two seasons — a third has been ordered — Chibnall says a quiet, but equally important character has been the location in South West England.

“I’d always think, ‘Someone should shoot something here,’” he says of the beaches of the Jurassic Coast of Dorset, where he lives — and roams during bouts of writers block.

“It’s so beautiful. I’m almost embarrassed it took me seven years to do something with it because visually it’s stunning. With the small-town setting of Broadchurch, all the characters feel very connected to the location.”

As he has plotted the series, Chibnall has also made sure all of the investigations and especially the courtroom drama rang true.

“In the very beginning, I talked to a lot of crime reporters and police advisors, but for the later court scenes I made a few barristers watch the first season and then I asked them how they would prosecute or defend this case.”

Their answers? Well, that’s a secret.

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