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TV of a quality like Broadchurch doesn’t come along very often. And in an age when telly is an elastic experience – something which can be paused, rewound, and watched whenever we demand it – it’s rare for a show to command such attention that it becomes an appointment: an hour that millions cannot afford to record or download, because it would leave them behind.
One of the wonderful things about Broadchurch is that it has made water cooler detectives of us all. Heck, even Ant & Dec were jabbering on about it on their Saturday evening entertainment trough; a sure sign that Chris Chibnall’s drama has deservedly reached the point of cultural supersaturation. The Geordie finger puppets suspected Reverend Paul Coates of murder, and Episode 6 doesn’t do anything to disprove that theory.
Ahh, 1983. M*A*S*H, the moonwalk, ‘Mawdryn Undead’. Oh, and Mutually Assured Destruction. Good times.
But a bad time for The Doctor and Clara to land aboard a stricken Russian nuclear submarine. At the helm is Liam Cunningham, being all authoritarian and troubled, just as he was in BBC One’s short-lived space oddity Outcasts; while in the hold is David Warner, toting naught but a Walkman and a loveable grandfatherly nature.
‘Every great magic trick consists of three parts’, says Michael Caine in Christopher Nolan’s gaslight and handsomeness extravaganza The Prestige. Someone forgot to pass the message on to Jonathan Creek.
Well, we can probably now discount Jack Marshall as a suspect. Can’t we?
That’s the thing about Broadchurch: to be certain of anything is to risk being utterly wrong. It’s the dilemma the townspeople face this week as their collective gaze turns on a quiet old man who looks a lot like William Hartnell. The murder of Danny Latimer has stirred the sands of the Jurassic Coast, uncovering not only evidence like high tar cigarettes, but also events that some would rather stay buried.
You’ll have noticed this already, but In the Flesh has not been about zombies. It’s been a kitchen sink drama, disguised by rotting flesh. The pale skin and the mutated eyes designed to attract your attention as, underneath, the thoroughly human message of the show has played out: the human capacity for love and forgiveness. It just so happens that the restless dead make a great allegory for laying things to rest.
Songs. Since the Doctor returned in 2005 they’ve formed a quiet coda in the background of his lives, and not simply because of composer Murray Gold’s bombastic injection of sound. ‘I sang a song and the Daleks ran away’, Nine told Rose. ‘Your song is ending soon’, the Ood warned Ten, and sang him to sleep. And Eleven? Well, he’s played around a lot with a certain Melody lately.
Ahead of the release of Star Trek Into Darkness in cinemas on Thursday 9 May, each week we’re rewatching a classic Star Trek movie, continuing this week with 1989’s Star Trek V: The Final Frontier…
Jonathan Creek returns this Easter with a brand new 90-minute special, guest starring Rik Mayall, Joanna Lumley, Sarah Alexander and Nigel Planer.
Written and created by Chris Chibnall (Doctor Who, Torchwood), ITV’s new drama series, Broadchurch, explores what happens to a small community in Dorset when it suddenly becomes the focus of a police investigation, following the tragic and mysterious death of an eleven year old boy under the glare of the media spotlight.