Episode four of Broadchurch brought new evidence, new suspects and a socially awkward dining experience. Read our review below
Contains spoilers
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Fires bracketed the opening and closing of episode four of Broadchurch while within the small town
frustration and dissatisfaction sparked and smouldered and spread as the town’s
population began to grumble about the apparent lack of progress of the investigation.
But the police had evidence, real proper evidence as SOCO Brian (Peter de
Jersey) discovered fibres and hair on the carcass of the burnt boat. DI Hardy
(David Tennant) was elated and for a moment he seemed almost about to break
into a little Highland jig at the news. He was
so happy that he even went so far as to raise a length of police tape to let
colleague Ellie Miller (Olivia Colman) through in a gentlemanly manner, but his
normal levels of misery and general misanthropy were quickly restored when
critics at the town meeting reminded him of the Sandbrook case. As he feared,
everyone was now getting involved, meaning the press particularly, though he
did grudgingly accept a new piece of evidence from the former object of his
ire, Olly (Jonathan Bailey).
The press, it had to be said, did more than their bit in
stoking up the aggravation in the town. Olly, while no doubt hiding out from
his apparently complicated domestic circumstances, indulged in a little late
night research which uncovered something particularly unpleasant about Jack
(David Bradley). Meanwhile, Maggie
(Carolyn Pickles) found that Susan (Pauline Quirke) might not be all that she
seemed. Karen (Vicky McClure) caused general mischief to shift a few more
copies of the Herald while ensuring that the Latimer family saw her as the person to trust. As the town quickly
became overrun with tabloid hacks and paps, crafty Karen manipulated the family
and her local colleagues to come to some unfounded conclusions that will
inevitably refocus the whole case.
There was a lot of skulking about in the darkness this week.
Beth met Ellie for an early hours chat about Mark’s infidelity while the
Reverend Paul (Arthur Darvill) loitered around his own church and Nige (Joe
Sims) lurked in his van observing an exchange of views between Jack and Olly.
Queen of the Midnight Prowlers has to be Susan Wright (Pauline Quirke) who
generally raised her profile as a face to watch in the enquiry. Not only does
the odd loner have some as yet unexplained connection to Mark’s best mate Nige,
but Psycho Susan pulled out all the stops to menace snooping journalist Maggie
who had perhaps uncovered a little more about her than she felt comfortable
with sharing with the rest of the town. “I know men who can rape you!” she
hissed after breaking into the newspaper office, leaving the hack with little
doubt that Susan is a genuinely nasty piece of work.
Ellie and Hardy seemed to be falling more into step with one
another as they worked each other out. Under Hardy’s tutelage Ellie has, to her
dismay, started to become more detached. Looking around the town meeting she
suddenly sees not a room full of friends and neighbours but a room full of
potential suspects. She doesn’t like what she’s becoming. Hardy shrugs off her
concern. “A good detective” he states. “Hardened!” she shudders in response.
Their dinner date was as cringeworthy as anticipated, with Hardy awkwardly
arriving bearing an abundance of gifts yet still refusing to be on first name
terms. As light relief it’s absolutely necessary, but it’s also a sign of their
new repositioning. Whether it was the wine, the soft lighting or perfect
husband Joe’s good cooking, Hardy even offered up a few snippets of personal
information. He’d been married, apparently, and there’s a daughter too. With
Ellie out of the room Hardy expresses concern that his colleague doesn’t like
him to Joe (Matthew Gravelle), and we even saw the first, genuine Hardy smile. She
in turn seemed properly worried at the injury he sustained through his
‘accident’ the next day. However, we’re none the wiser either about the nature
of Hardy’s medical condition that causes him to black out so dramatically and
which he defies in order to prove his worth as a detective.
The Latimer family tried hard to plough on with their normal
lives in utterly abnormal circumstances. For Beth (Jodie Whittaker) this is
incredibly hard. On the one hand she is
grieving for the loss of her son, even asking Ellie’s son Tom (Adam Wilson) for
a hug because she misses Danny’s so much. On the other hand she is grieving for
her marriage. She now knows that Mark (Andrew Buchan) was unfaithful with Becca
Fisher (Simone McAullay). It’s no wonder that she seeks trust, answers and
reassurance elsewhere. When psychic Steve (Will Mellor) is debunked as a petty
criminal and con artist she turns to Karen as another source of support in a
misguided means of raising the profile of the case. And raise the profile it
does, though whether that is in the way that she had hoped remains to be seen.
Nonetheless, the Latimers and family friends sit down for a model Sunday dinner
shot in a gentle golden haze and for a while it’s almost normal. And then,
reality bites back. It never can be normal again, not with one person gone
forever and not with the arrival of a former friend who could be the killer. And
not with Mark and Beth’s brittle relationship on the point of collapse, with
the press ambushing them at every turn and the town on the point of exploding
in a mess of false accusations as friends and trusted neighbours turn upon one
another. It will be interesting to see whether the golden colour palette in which the episodes have been shot so far darkens and changes over the next few weeks.
At the end of the episode, the police have a new piece of
evidence in the return of Danny’s phone, the family are the focus of increasing
media attention, the first fractures are appearing in the fabric of relationships
within the town and one person is burning incriminating items. At this, the
halfway point, we are no closer to identifying the killer, but it is more than
the need to know the killer’s identity that draws audiences back. The human
interest, the complexities of the relationships and the very real characters
that are so easy to invest in make this the drama to return to, over and over. It’s
TV as it should be – thrilling, gripping and stimulating; something to be
discussed and something to be anticipated. Those seven days in between instalments
feel like seven weeks.
Top suspects of the
week
- Jack Marshall (David Bradley) – it appears that the town has a convicted sex offender in their midst. But after only four episodes are we being led astray? Is Jack just a convenient media scapegoat?
- Susan Wright (Pauline Quirke) – a dangerous, menacing individual with a possible secret past that she really doesn’t want anyone to look to deeply into, and a mysterious connection with Nige. The business with the hut is still quite open and there has been no explanation of that skateboard yet
- Nige Carter (Joe Sims) – Mark’s friend and colleague. One minute he’s having terse exchanges with Susan in alleyways, the next he’s insisting that he can make it all better for the Latimer’s with a cheery roast dinner. Over-compensating for something?
- Paul Coates (Arthur Darvill) – what is it in Paul’s past that stops him sleeping at night? He says he can’t recall where his wandering took him on the night of the murder. And does his school IT club give him a connection with Danny and Tom that hasn’t been explored yet?
Episode 5 of Broadchurch can be seen at 9pm on Monday 1st April on ITV
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