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.

Iv been wondering for months what you all mean when you say iirc on mumsnet - just clicked, I think - it's if I remember correctly?

I don't think Mark is meeting Tom? Because they both miss Danny. Tom didn't even like Danny...

Yes, I find Ellie's situation really sad.

There is something very sinister about Tom meeting up with Mark but it would be too obvious for Mark to harm Tom.

To me it seems that even though joe is guilty he knows so many secrets of the other characters that will undermine the case so much that he will get off!(unless I'm just being thick!)

Didn't watch the last series but enjoyed it this eve. Caravan scene and expression on Mark's face was sinister, plotting a horrible revenge?

Why would ellie agree to getting involved with the madcap "witness" hideaway? At best claire gave a false alibi to someone she now seems frightened of. Getting involved isn't going to impress ellie's angry son.

Is it true that there is no witness protection if people are found not guilty?

So, series two is the killer's trial?

Agree Claire seems suspicious already, but am no annoyed by the legal nonsense, why on earth not represent it as it is?

Gah, this is spoilt for me by the wholesale lack of any attempt whatsoever to find out how the justice system works. It's not just the nonsense of the victim's family choosing the barrister, it's the fact that she's running the case and talking about totally unethical extensive discussions with them with no sign of a CPS solicitor choosing to instruct her, and no junior. It's equally the fact that the defence in this mega case likewise don't seem to have an instructing solicitor, and despite the QC's alleged brilliance she doesn't seem to have got a place in a normal set of chambers, but is in some sort of tinpot setup with only two people with no clerk; the junior makes the choice of QC without checking with a solicitor or even seeing, maybe, whether legal aid will actually pay for it; they manage to get an exhumation at no notice and have nothing better to do but to turn up and watch the coffin being dug up.

It may seem pedantic, but if they can't be bothered to do a little basic research on these things, how much faith can you have in the rest of it being even half way procedurally accurate?

Angleto that is a brilliant theory. Jealous wife murdered husbands 19 year old lover.

Well mumsnet we have solved it already

Remember in season 1 Ellie lied and said Danny and Tom were best friends, so did Danny's sister. Why would they do that? They're both hiding something.

So basically Ellie will get very close to Claire who will turn out to have murdered the girl Pepper and the friend she was with was probably the 19 year old missing sister perhaps? Who she was with because she was burying her under the patio?

"Before an exhumation licence is granted, consideration is given to the length of time the body has been interred. As a matter of course, the exhumation of recently deceased people is not permitted. Following exhumation, the remains of the deceased person must be reburied or cremated within 48 hours of exhumation.

An exhumation licence will not be granted where:

The consent of the next of kin has not been given
The burial plot cannot be identified
The remains lie unidentified in a common plot (e.g. the burial plot of a religious order)
Due respect to the deceased cannot be guaranteed
The remains to be exhumed are located below a body that is not to be exhumed
Public health and decency cannot be protected
Graveyard ground conditions are not conducive to an exhumation
Conditions attached to the exhumation licence cannot be complied with."

"During the course of the exhumation, the Environmental Health Officer ensures that:

The correct grave is opened
The exhumation commences as early as possible in the morning to ensure maximum privacy
The plot/burial ground is screened as appropriate
All workers wear protective clothing, including gloves, overalls, face masks, etc.
Everyone present shows due respect to the deceased person"

So, um, basically nothing like in Broadchurch then

Wonder how they will react in tomorrow's interviews about how everyone's annoyed at their lack of research of the judicial system?

Tbh if not for this thread I would have watched happily with no idea

But surely the whole production team wasn't that hairbrained that nobody thought to do any research? Unless it's part of the whole plot and the whole thing somehow later gets shown to be a complete farce, now that would be clever writing

They seem to be setting up some back story with the opposing lawyers and a third case, where the Charlotte Rampling character wouldn't help her former subordinate, perhaps they needed to depart from realism to do that?

I'm in.

Did anyone catch who the actor is who is playing the dad from the Sandbrook case? We saw him briefly right at the end and it's annoying me that I recognise him from somewhere but can't think where

Sorry to bang on, but still on the exhumation theme, googling tells me that is is extremely rare in criminal cases, requires applying to a judge with good reason, and for example, when Manchester police exhumed Harold Shipman's victims, it had never been done before in the history of the force. Crucially, consent is required from the next of kin for it to happen.

There is just NO WAY it would happen in this situation; the defence team could re-examine the findings of the post-mortem, but I find it highly unlikely that all relevant toxicology tests and DNA investigations wouldn't have been performed to the fullest extent of current scientific knowledge in a murder case, and even if the defence thought of something else vital to their case, it would take them months to get an exhumation licence. I'm only googling UK procedural stuff, but from what I've seen so far, I'd put good money on this situation in Broadchurch as being utterly unprecedented and basically impossible.

James D'Arcy? Do you know him from Secret Diary Of A Call Girl?

I think the priest/vicar was in that too actually, as Billie Piper's best mate, but I might be wrong.

They will have researched all this stuff, likely done a few focus groups and decided to put it all aside for the sake of making good telly.

It's an ITV drama, I say we be grateful it's half watchable at all.

Personally I thought it was great and am interested in seeing how the story develops.

Owl, me too. He looks familiar, so will obviously have a proper rile and not just a bit part.

Role*

I do agree though that OC was laying it on a bit thick.

I am wrong- I've just checked. The vicar is someone else, but he's a doppelgänger!

Radiobedhead, I agree, honestly, and I'll watch and enjoy it, I promise! I just like scoffing as much as I like following the drama. Downton Abbey still hasn't lost me as a viewer .

Could the bluebells be something the girl Pepper was picking who was murdered. Or her sister who is missing.