History Series / Broadchurch

* FridgeBrilliance: Hardy turns down both coffee and fish and chips offered by Ellie. It seems as though he’s just being picky and rude but it’s more likely that he’s avoiding caffeine and fried foods due to his heart condition.

* TeensAreShort: Chloe is a full head shorter than her (not particularly tall) mother.

''Broadchurch'' is a 2013 8-part Creator/{{ITV}} DetectiveDrama, starring Creator/DavidTennant, Creator/OliviaColman, Creator/JodieWhittaker and Creator/ArthurDarvill. In the eponymous town, 11-year old boy Danny Latimer is found dead. Recently arrived DI Alec Hardy (Tennant) leads the investigation, with the assistance of DS Ellie Miller (Colman) — despite her resentment that Hardy got the promotion that she felt was rightfully hers while she was on holiday. As they dig into the goings on at the apparently [[IdyllicEnglishVillage quiet seaside town]], a lot of skeletons start falling out of closets.

The show was a huge hit for ITV. A second 8-episode series aired in 2015, dealing with the revelations and fallout from the first one, along with presenting a new mystery from Hardy's past. A third 8-episode series aired in 2017, dealing with a rape investigation, along with the continuing aftermath from the first.

Behind the scenes, the show appears to have been a bit of an unofficial ''Series/DoctorWho'' reunion — in addition to Tennant (the Tenth Doctor), it also features Arthur Darvill (Rory), Creator/EveMyles (Gwen from ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'') and several other actors (including Colman) who have guest starred on ''Doctor Who''. In addition, its writer Creator/ChrisChibnall (co-producer and head writer of ''Torchwood''[='s=] first two series) was later confirmed as the new showrunner for ''Doctor Who'' beginning with series 11 in 2018, and Jodie Whittaker was later cast as the Thirteenth Doctor, to start at the same date as Chibnall.

* GrayAndGrayMorality: People are keeping secrets, but sometimes their motives are understandable. Characters originally viewed as scumbags are suddenly portrayed in a very human light.

++ In the season 3 finale,[[spoiler: Leo tries to take the heat for his son Michael, who is revealed as Trish's rapist.]]

* PapaWolf: In the season 1 finale, [[spoiler: a big factor in Joe's decision to turn himself in is that Hardy had collected evidence that was making Tom look like a likely suspect.]]
++ In the season 3 finale,[[spoiler: Leo tries to take the heat for his son Michael, who is revealed to be Trish's rapist.]]

''Broadchurch'' is a 2013 8-part Creator/{{ITV}} DetectiveDrama, starring Creator/DavidTennant, Creator/OliviaColman, Creator/JodieWhittaker and Creator/ArthurDarvill. In the eponymous town, 11-year old boy Danny Latimer is found dead. Recently arrived DI Alec Hardy (Tennant) leads the investigation, with the assistance of DS Ellie Miller (Colman) — despite her resentment that Hardy got the promotion that she felt was rightfully hers while she was on holiday. As they dig into the goings on at the apparently quiet seaside town, a lot of skeletons start falling out of closets.

* AdultFear: Basis of the plot.

** The prosecution barrister, who appears to have been chosen at the victim’s family's request (something which would never happen in real life), has her hands on the IdiotBall so much that her legal expertise becomes an InformedAbility.
** No judge would have ruled the defendant's confession as inadmissible for the reasons given. [[spoiler: Joe was beaten up by Ellie ''after'' he’d confessed to killing Danny, a fact that any half-decent prosecution team would have been able to verify just by looking at the times on the police station CCTV footage, thus proving that police brutality clearly wasn't a factor in getting him to confess.]]

* CanineCompanion: Vince – Susan’s Labrador, without whom she is never seen. She is so attached to Vince that she is even willing [[spoiler:to allow herself to be suspected of murder rather than cooperate with the police]] while her dog is missing.

* DestroyTheEvidence: Many examples, as might be expected in a murder mystery of this complexity. Jack Marshall [[spoiler:[[FieryCoverup burns the photos]] he took of the boys in Sea Brigade – despite having not actually committed a crime]]; the killer wipes down the clifftop hut where the murder took place, and also [[FieryCoverup burns Mark’s boat]] that has Danny’s DNA in it; Tom deletes his email conversations with Danny from his phone and tries to destroy his hard drive [[spoiler:to cover up the fact that he and Danny fought before he died]].

* IntrepidReporter: Ollie starts out looking like he’s going to be one of these, but ultimately proves to care more about the people involved than about getting the scoop, after [[spoiler:Jack Marshall commits suicide]] as a result of his and Karen’s pieces on him. His boss Maggie has elements of this, too, putting herself into danger for the sake of her news stories.

* LastNameBasis: Hardy prefers this form of address for himself and others (even going on a rant about how much he dislikes the practice of calling people by their first names when asked by Ellie if she can call him “Alec” when he is at their house for dinner). [[spoiler:When the truth about Joe comes out, Ellie is understandably freaked out when a sympathetic Alec suddenly calls her Ellie.]]

* MeaningfulFuneral: Two examples: first is the funeral for [[spoiler:Jack Marshall]], at which the vicar lambastes the community for essentially causing the man’s death and shows that he really is serious about bringing the community together, without an agenda. Secondly is the funeral/memorial for Danny in the final episode, in which we see characters coming together that have been absent or estranged throughout the series.

* PeacefulInDeath: Discussed when Susan tells DS Miller about [[spoiler:seeing Danny’s body on the beach]]. She wonders aloud whether her own daughter looked as peaceful when she was killed by her husband, and says that she doubts it.

* ShrineToTheFallen: The Latimers are reluctant to clear Danny's room for the new baby as they originally planned to keep it untouched.

* HollywoodGenetics: Brown-haired Mark and Beth have blonde daughter Chloe. Not impossible, but quite unlikely.

* OneSteveLimit: Averted--Ellie's son and one of the uniformed police are both named Tom.

** The defense lawyers in Series Two, who bizarrely appear to be positively gleeful about the prospect of making a clearly guilty man a KarmaHoudini, and even do things that aren't even necessary to their case just to [[KickTheDog make an already grieving family suffer more.]]. It also seriously doesn't help that the entire trial is absurdly slanted in their favour, with the judge allowing them to go off on all kinds of wild speculations without a shred of evidence at the same time the prosecution is constantly admonished to stick to the facts.

* CommonalityConnection: Mark and Jack have one because [[spoiler:they both lost young sons]].

* CluelessDetective: [[spoiler:The main reason Miller has to leave Broadchurch at the end, as no one is going to respect the "detective" whose husband was a pedophile and a child murderer right under her nose.]]

* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: The vicar tries to comfort Beth by telling her that sometimes god takes those he loves the most first.

* DeathOfAChild: The first series is about the death of an 11-year-old child. One of the victims of the Sandbrook case that took place prior to the show was a 12-year-old girl.

* CatapultNightmare: Hardy has a bad dream at the start of 1x05 which culminates in him startling and screaming in his bed.

* ShellShockSilence: The sound drowns out when the mother sees the body of Danny at the beach.

* ShoutOut: Set in Wessex as a shout out to Creator/ThomasHardy, and the lead detective also gets his surname.