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MNPD assemble! It's Broadchurch time

999 replies

EauRouge · 05/01/2015 09:17

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

OP posts:
PandasRock · 13/01/2015 12:20

Im confused about the dates now. Danny's headstone said he died July 2013, right? July would fit, as it was sports day when he was first missing, wasn't it? So end of summer term at school.

Have I skipped a year - the first series of Broadchirch was on last year, wasn't it? So Danny dies July 2013, and Broadchurch is shown in 2014, the year after his death.

Beth wasn't pregnant in July, was she? She took a test further on in the series, in the middle of the investigation, so some weeks later. So baby conceived late August/early September would be right for a May due date, surely? Which would then be ok for all the summer clothes in first series (we know it took place over the summer, beginning sports day and on over the holidays/into September), and for the decent ish weather in the second series as May is usually warm enough for no winter coats etc.

fussychica · 13/01/2015 12:21

Have tuned into the last 2 episodes after failing to catch Series 1. I'm not having a problem understanding what's going on just that it all seems pretty implausible / pretty crap, to the point where I'm already thinking of giving up on it. I must admit after all the hype I was expecting something pretty special but I'm disappointed and failing to see what all the fuss is about.

Give me Engrenages / The Bridge / The Killing /Wallander /Montalbano over this any time.

Quenelle · 13/01/2015 12:23

I'll give it one more week but if it continues to be this daft I'll stop watching. There is so much excellent drama available to watch nowadays I don't have to watch lame nonsense for want of anything better to do.

PandasRock · 13/01/2015 12:23

Well, I didn't say there weren't any plot flaws at all, rollergirl Grin

I am stumped at that bit, I must admit. But presumably her reason will become clear over the series. If she is guilty, it doesn't yet make sense for her to hide with DT, as she could easily have put blame etc on her husband and cheerily waved goodbye to DT without all the histrionics at Lee being after her etc. there must be a reason she needed to be with DT - a piece of evidence she needs to get back or somethign, which would put them both at the scene but which DT either doesn't realise he has/realise what it is or he does, and is stringing her along. Or something.

Quenelle · 13/01/2015 12:24

Exactly fussychica. I could have been watching the next episode of The Bridge last night but chose this instead.

Rollergirl1 · 13/01/2015 12:26

First series of Broadchurch aired March 2013.

PandasRock · 13/01/2015 12:27

Oh, and DT is insisting on using Ellie to help out because:

He knows what she has lost and is trying to help her a bit, and

He reckons he can get her back into being a 'proper' policewoman (ie a detective rather than traffic cop) by immersing her in the situation - a 'see, I told you you'd want to get back to it' type thing. (Zenith is, of course, why she is going along with it - she just can't help herself, and needs to be doing the 'proper' policing, which is what she wants to do, rather than the traffic role she has been forced into to get away from her former friends)

PandasRock · 13/01/2015 12:28

Did it really? Blush

My god, I have lost a year! Grin

Nancy66 · 13/01/2015 12:32

Beth's bump is terrible. it just looks like she's shoved a lumpy pillow under her dress.

Quite stunned at how bad an actress Charlotte Rampling is in this as well

GentlyBenevolent · 13/01/2015 12:41

hackmum The murder did happen at the end of term. On sports day. Well - the night before. The sister went back to school when term started again. Ellie and family had been to disneyland - on summer holiday BEFORE term ended (naughty) and the murder happened the day they got back (or possibly the day after that). It was established in the last series that the hotel was the only one in the village, the actual broadchurch itself, hence Hardy was staying there even though he didn't like it. The court complex is supposed to be the county court (actually, it's Exeter university) so it's not supposed to be in the actual Broadchurch itself. I don't know why the barristers from London found it necessary to stay in the actual Broadchurch. Beth didn't find out she was upduffed in the first episode, she might not have found out till mid August or even early September which works date-wise - I got upduffed with DD1 at the very end of August and her EDD was June, although she was actually born in May. So if the trial started right at the beginning of May that could work (although I agree it would be stretching it).

hollyisalovelyname · 13/01/2015 12:42

I couldn't understand how they all just walked over the letters on the floor (like my dc would) in the hall in Ellie's house. Pick them up and make the place look a bit tidier. Grin
What a stupid place to meet.
The poor plumber's mate looks well dodgy!!!

hollyisalovelyname · 13/01/2015 12:42

And as for the vicar!!!
What's that about ?

GentlyBenevolent · 13/01/2015 12:46

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.

It's what we saw in the last series towards first the newsagent (who killed himself) and then Mark's oppo (the bald one who isn't Joe. Can't remember his name - the one who turned out to be Pauline Quirke's son). Seems to be what they are all like.

I too have very little sympathy for Beth based on the behaviour we have seen, to be honest. Ellie was not responsible for Danny and Joe meeting up over a long period of time in a dodgy way any more than Beth was - less so in fact since Joe was an adult and Danny...wasn't.

Hakluyt · 13/01/2015 12:49

I am sure there was a red letter there the second time that hadn't been there before. Or maybe I imagined it.........

GentlyBenevolent · 13/01/2015 12:50

holly I'm sure Rory is involved. Somehow. He's too good an actor, and too big a name, to be playing a minor role. I'm torn between thinking Joe confessed because he thought he had been responsible for Danny's death but is pleading not guilty because he wants it to be manslaughter, and thinking he confessed because he was covering for someone (but perhaps not knowing for whom he was covering) and now regrets that and has decided his guilt for being a dodgy fucker doesn't mean he has to take the fall for a murder he didn't do. I suspect Rory's close involvement (visiting him in jail etc) is because He Is The One.

PandasRock · 13/01/2015 12:52

Yes, Gently, it was seen before. But (and it's a big but) at was when people were wildly casting around trying to find motive and cause for Danny's murder. The whole community ended up suspecting each other, no one knew who to trust, etc. speculation got out of hand.

Now, it is known who killed Danny. Joe was caught with incriminating evidence and confessed. No reason to suspect Ellie knew (and beyond the initial, probably quite accurate accusation of 'how could you not know?!' There has been no suggestion from anyone that she was involved) and so no reason to carry on the vitriol. Not being friends anymore with the wife of the man who killed your son? Yes, believable. Storming in when said woman dares to come back to her own home, and start a fight? Not so believable.

rollonthesummer · 13/01/2015 12:55

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 think she said, 'he would never be rough with me-well not unless I asked him to' which is more sexual that violent, I think.

GentlyBenevolent · 13/01/2015 13:03

Well, I think she was starting a fight because she was thinking that Ellie beat him up on purpose knowing that this would get the confession thrown out (that was what she was accusing her of). Also because she is fighty (she physically attacked her own husband in the last series). It's possible that the contrast is between a couple where one person isn't involved - but people think she is, and a couple where one person is actually involved, but people think she isn't (Gwen Cooper and whatsisname). And maybe (but maybe not) one case where the police fucked up but people think they didn't (in terms of fingering the right person) (Danny's murder) and one where they didn't but people think they did (Sandbrooke). It's not inconceivable that at the end of all of this (after this series or the planned third one) it will transpire that Hardy is in fact a rubbish copper and Ellie, passed over for promotion etc - isn't.

GentlyBenevolent · 13/01/2015 13:04

rollon yes - but potentially dodgy, no?

PandasRock · 13/01/2015 13:14

Hmm, interesting, Gently, re: the contrasts.

I can see the line of thinking re: Beth. I suppose, if she does truly believe Ellie knew, rather than a knee jerk reaction, then yes, she could think Ellie hit Joe to ensure he never got convicted. I struggle to think that Beth would really think this of her former good friend, but I can see where the character would not be thinking clearly etc, and it is easier to carry on blaming than stop and examine the situation more closely, as then of course Beth would have to admit she should have known where Danny was.

But I still find it hard to believe the whole community, who all knew and liked Ellie as well, would all be thinking the same thing. Surely some of them would be saying 'hang on a minute...' To each other, if not to Beth?

I'm not sure it will end with Hardy being rubbish - more that he doesn't know who to trust. Wasn't the issue with Sandbrook that he was covering for another officers mistake (his wife?). And if he doesn't know Claire was involved (if she is) then he clearly can't be that good a judge of character.

BingoBonkers · 13/01/2015 14:04

I'm gutted that Broadchurch has lost it's sparkle.

rollonthesummer · 13/01/2015 14:41

rollon yes - but potentially dodgy, no?

But of course! This is Broadchurch-everything is potentially dodgy!

Blondeshavemorefun · 13/01/2015 16:34

Just watching now Havnt ready anything yet but agree with the poster who said about the seasons

Meant to be jan ish and when on beach was sitting in a jumper in the sun

Can't beleive the lady lawyer went to the familys home. Surely she would have refused on conflict of interests

DonkeysYears · 13/01/2015 16:39

Have I imagined this or perhaps remembered it from a different drama altogether, but didnt the vicar smash up and destroy a lap top in series one?

Blondeshavemorefun · 13/01/2015 16:42

Beth's daughter is in Waterloo road as the girl who can't read or write

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