MNPD assemble! It's Broadchurch time

[EauRouge]

Notebooks at the ready We should have enough information at the end of the first episode to start cooking up some slightly implausible theories.

did the girl kill her cousin/ niece by accident.

Ooh! I like it.

My attention wandered a bit last night. Partly due to the plot improbabilities and partly due to hearing DT on Radio 1 at the weekend trying out different accents so that Broadchurch could be remade for international markets.
The houses are gorgeous though. It's like watching Escape To The Country with a side of Drama.

Just popped onto the thread to say we almost booked the chalet which is next to David Tennants one for our hols this year.

As you were.

I'm pretty sure the witness summons on the Latimers' fridge said May but that would be an elephant-like gestation

I agree - I'm really cross that this is so disappointing.

There's merit in making it about the emotional innocent of a trial on a small community (as per first series) but then it at least has to bear some relation to the judicial process.

That scene where Rampling turns up at the house to give her speech was laughable.

The Sandbrook subplot is baffling. Why is Ellie getting involved, why did she agree to go back to her house just on DT's say so.

Would there really only be one hotel to stay for the barristers at that time of year in a seasonal holiday area with a large comprehensive school and substantial court complex. Who would be funding their stay ?

So much wrong with this!

As other people have already mentioned, there is no way that the discussion about whether the confession should be admitted as evidence would take place in front of a jury. The whole point is that if it's not going to be admitted as evidence, the jury can't know about it.

Why on earth did Hardy arrange for Claire and Lee to meet in Ellie's house? Why did he arrange for them to meet at all - what was the point?

Also the timing seems a bit off - is Beth having the longest pregnancy ever? (And it still bugs me that the date of Danny's death on his gravestone, July 18 2013, is after the first series had aired, though I suppose they had to do that to make it all fit together. And July 18 would have been right at the end of term and there wasn't any reference after that to school holidays - the kids were still going to school, iirc.)

Haven't read the whole thread although I am completely hooked but just wandered if you lot know DT's chalet is for sale!.

As you were

Claire was also in torchwood

I did wonder if the older girl sent the bluebell and Claire had somehow helped her disappear or something but I can't remember which ones body they found. Also it has to be some she's given her po box address to no?

Surely it must be significant that the Latimer dad is meeting with Tom in such similar circumstances as Joe met with Danny Yes and did you see his expression when he was telling Tom why he was meeting him?

Agree the whole lee/Claire meeting with beth turning up was ridiculous and obvious as soon as nige saw ellie!

That scene where Rampling turns up at the house to give her speech was laughable.

Exactly! And if it was improper for her to meet all the witnesses, why on earth would she think it proper to meet three of the witnesses in the shape of Danny's family members?

I assume that they would have checked Danny's phone and discovered the calls to Joe. So the defence barrister trying to suggest that Joe only had the phone because he had just picked it up doesn't really dispose of his guilt, and surely Hardy would have said so.

It really is ludicrous to suggest that the confession should be excluded because of violence after it had been made - the defence were trying to make out that no-one could be sure that it hadn't happened beforehand, but surely they would have to explain why Joe didn't complain of anything if that was the case. He'd seen a solicitor by the time Ellie saw him, hadn't he? It's really quite difficult to hide a broken rib, and he would have had no reason whatsoever to keep quiet about it.

I agree.

I also can't imagine that anyone would buy 'police brutality'.

Were they trying to imply that DT had beat him up and Ellie was covering for him?

A nonsense.

Never mind all the ridiculous legal and procedural inaccuracies- an Asian woman judge, a black woman and an older woman as prosecuting and defending counsel? That would seriously never happen. I can't even begin to suspend disbelief after that.......

Hmm. I was disappointed with the whole episode. Last week's was so shocking and brilliant, last night's was a bit feeble.

1. The Ellie's house thing - ridiculous!
2. The Clare/ex escape thing - ridiculous!
3. Are we invested in Clare or do we even care about her storyline? No.
4. Obviously one or both of them did it. There are no other cast members in their 'story' so there can't be a 'surprise' Scooby Doo type reveal!

Having watched the first series back to back at the weekend ( didn't see it when it was on TV last year) I think Broadchurch 2 is not going to be anywhere near as good. Hakluyt is correct, it does seem very strange. I think the writers had a winning formula for the first series and this is just rushed out to cash in on that success ,with a few more well known actors thrown in! Will carry on with it though, at least its a drama and far better than 'stars in their eyes' which I caught 15 minutes of on Sunday repeat and 15 minutes I will never get back again!

Yes, stars in their eyes was diabolical!

Also, Ellie had some cracking, sparky dialogue last week which was simply absent last night.

Claire said something rather unpleasant in last night's episode. When she was talking to Ellie before meeting Lee, Ellie asked if she was scared to see him and Claire said something like "I know he'd never hurt me. He's never hit me, well not unless I've asked him to." Ellie looked really shocked.

I just cannot get past DT suggesting Ellie's house as a reasonable place for their liaison to take place. As someone else said why would he think it okay for them to meet in the first place? It makes a total mockery of the last 7 months that he's spent hiding her!

I will watch next weeks but may not continue if it doesn't get any better.

Am also really starting to dislike Beth's character. The way she was pushing and shoving Ellie was really bullying and aggressive. I feel really sorry for Ellie. She has done absolutely nothing wrong. It even seems that DT no longer has her best wishes at heart and is just using her to help him sort out his mess with Claire.

Rollergirl, yep, definitely something dodgy sexually between Clare and her husband.

Claire and the husband must be in it together - why else would she have let him open her shirt without calling for help from the copper in the next room. Just stupid.

I was gripped by series 1, but have given up already after the first episode of Series 2. Will keep reading this thread, though, so I will know what I am missing (or not as the case may be).

DT must suspect Claire, and hasn't been protecting her all this time, but rather keeping her where he can see her, and hoping she'll trip up and implicate herself.

That's why he let them meet, so he could film it and see what they said, and why he is now distraught they have legged it - not for her safety (if he truly believed that he wouldn't have left them alone, even with cameras) but because now they have both disappeared, and he has lost not one, but two suspects.

I also think everyone is being too harsh on Ellie. She has lost everything - her life, her job, even her son - because of something her husband did. I can see why Beth would be furious that Ellie's actions in hitting Joe have made the confession inadmissible - Beth would assume that as a police officer Ellie would know that, and should have acted professionally rather than as joe's wife - and I can also see that, quite obviously, the friendship would change and not survive Danny being killed. But the level of hatred and vitriol towards her, seemingly from the whole community, when she did nothing wrong, and didn't deliberately mishandle the case, or destroy evidence etc is just wrong.

Poor Danny died July 2013 - It would be early 2014 now ( march time?) yet none of them seemed dressed that warmly for early spring in Dorset, I know Beth is pregnant but she had a short dress thing on? If it is meant to be May , then she is 2 months overdue - not possible? oh well, it is only a drama after all. The legal things being wrong ( not that I would know) are interesting to read about on here. you would think it would be researched first! Its all pointing to Danny's dad again - just as it was in the first one. Or the vicar maybe?

PandasRock I think you could be right there. But it still doesn't really add up. If Claire is not innocent and is implicated in some way why would she choose to be hidden by the investigating officer? Why wouldn't she just disappear so no-one could find her?