Meet The Characters Of Broadchurch

DI Alec Hardy

DI Alec Hardy is a newly promoted police detective who has moved from a large force in Glasgow to the small town of Broadchurch. His move has been under an unspecified professional cloud and he has been transferred to the tiny community to keep him out of the public eye. However, when he is called upon to investigate the death of eleven year old Danny Latimer he is cast back into the media spotlight and it is only a matter of time before his own secrets are laid bare.

Hardy is a difficult individual to work alongside, with clinical methods and extremely high standards that he expects others to meet. He is very much a big city cop, with plenty of experience in murder cases. However, he is unsociable, abrasive and unyielding, lacking the people skills that allow him to understand the needs and feelings of others. He finds it hard to work in the small community and has a low opinion of small, local forces.

Hardy is very different to his local colleague Ellie Miller, both professionally and personally: he is all for his work, with no life outside it, while she is sociable and well-liked. This adds to the initial animosity between them early on in their working partnership. Hardy has also been promoted into the position that Miller assumed was hers.

Played by David Tennant

Adam Wilson, Matthew Gravelle and Olivia Colman

DS Ellie Miller

Ellie is a local girl, brought up in Broadchurch, and has a deep loyalty to the town. She has a family of her own and feels very much in the heart of a close-knit community where everybody knows everybody else. She has a close connection to the family of the dead boy: her own son Tom was Danny Latimer’s best friend, so she is personally and emotionally involved.

Ellie joined the police to serve her community and has worked her way up. She believed that it would be natural for her to step into the Detective Inspector role, so finds it extremely galling to have to accept the arrival of Alec Hardy who takes the job that she thought was to have been hers and having to take the lead from Hardy only adds to the bitterness that she feels towards him. She finds his methods difficult and ill-suited to the way that she and her colleagues have been used to working so their relationship is strained to say the least.

Ellie is a trusting person who is asked to examine the town that is her home and the people who live there with deep scrutiny by the intense and focused DI Hardy, forcing her to gain a fresh perspective on the community which she loves and to see her friends and neighbours as potential suspects.

Played by Olivia Colman

Also seen in:

TV Peep Show, Twenty Twelve, Rev, Green Wing, The Accused, Doctor Who

Film I Give It A Year, The Iron Lady, Hot Fuzz, Tyrannosaur

Arthur Darvill

Reverend Paul Coates

Paul Coates is a young priest in his first parish and it is one that should, by rights, be peaceful and trouble free. He has made great efforts to be embraced by the Broadchurch community, even teaching IT at the local school and playing 5-a-side football in addition to his church duties. Even the older residents of the town have accepted him and he is seen as something as a figurehead. He tries his best to offer support in the wake of the tragedy.

Paul is completely dedicated to the church and his role; however he too has secrets from his past and he is among those who becomes affected by the fallout from the murder.

Played by Arthur Darvill

Also seen in:

TV Doctor Who, The Paradise, Little Dorritt

Film Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll

Charlotte Beaumont, Jodie Whittaker, Andrew Buchan, Susan Brown & Oskar McNamara

Mark Latimer

Mark is husband to Beth and father to Chloe and to the deceased boy, Danny. He and Beth married young and their relationship is not what he was: they are distant and barely communicate. Mark himself is quite angry, but the grief of losing his son utterly consumes him. At the same time he has to be the rock for the rest of the family

Played by Andrew Buchan

Also seen in:

TV Garrow’s Law, The Nativity, Cranford, Party Animals

Beth Latimer

Beth is the mother to Danny Latimer and also to Chloe, and wife to Mark. Beth is broken by the discovery of her son’s body following her frantic search for him. She is devastated by her loss and finds it difficult to relate to people and events around her. Much of the backbone of the drama is the focus on the journey of Beth and Mark and their family following the tragedy.

Played by Jodie Whittaker

Also seen in:

TV Black Mirror, Marchlands, Cranford

Film Attack The Block, St. Trinian’s, St. Trinian’s 2: The Legend Of Fritton’s Gold

Carolyn Pickles, Jonathan Bailey & Vicky McClure

Karen White

Karen is another outsider, a national journalist for The Herald who arrives in Broadchurch in the wake of the tragedy in search of a story. She is dedicated to her job and has a ruthless side when necessary to get her story out, but she is sensitive when dealing with the families affected by Danny’s death.

It also seems that Karen has a particular interest in DI Hardy and may understand the reason behind his move to Broadchurch.

Played by Vicky McClure

Also seen in:

TV Line Of Duty, True Love, This Is England ’88, This Is England ‘86

Film This Is England, A Room For Romeo Brass

Olly Stevens

The junior reporter for the Broadchurch Echo. He is young and over-enthusiastic and desperate for his first scoop.

Played by Jonathan Bailey

Also seen in:

TV Leonardo, Me And Mrs. Jones, Campus

Maggie Radcliffe

The editor of the Broadchurch Echo who finds herself with a huge national story right on her doorstep

Played by Carolyn Pickles

Also seen in:

TV Doctors, Land Girls

Film Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 1

Joe Sims, Will Mellor, David Bradley, Simone McAullay & Pauline Quirke

Susan Wright

Susan is a mysterious and scruffy woman who lives alone save for her devoted Labrador dog (played by Pauline’s own dog Bailey) in a caravan park. She is a suspicious and dark character who lurks on the outskirts of the community, always watching and listening. She seems without emotion, save the affection she bestows upon her dog, but she does seem to have something of her own to hide.

Played by Pauline Quirke

Also seen in

TV Emmerdale, Missing, Cold Blood, Birds Of A Feather

Steve Connelly

Telephone engineer Steve finds himself the focus of attention when he admits that he has a special connection to the case

Played by Will Mellor

Also seen in:

TV In With The Flynns, White Van Man, Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps

Jack Marshall

Jack owns and runs the local newsagents, JGM News.

Played by David Bradley

Also seen in:

TV Doctor Who, Mount Pleasant, Blackpool

Film Hot Fuzz, The Harry Potter movies

Becca Fisher

The hotelier is one of the local business people who become implicated when the effects of the murder in the community start to have an effect on their livelihoods.

Played by Simone McAullay

Also seen in:

TV The Strip, Home And Away

Nige Carter

Nige is a plumber by trade and the workmate and friend of Mark Latimer. He supports Mark through the tragedy.

Played by Joe Sims

Also seen in:

TV The Colour Of Magic, Casualty

Cast

DI Alec Hardy - David Tennant

DS Ellie Miller - Olivia Colman

Mark Latimer - Andrew Buchan

Beth Latimer - Jodie Whittaker

Karen White - Vicky McClure

Rev Paul Coates - Arthur Darvill

Susan Wright - Pauline Quirke

Steve Connelly - Will Mellor

Maggie Radcliffe - Carolyn Pickles

Joe Miller - Matthew Gravelle

Becca Fisher - Simone McAullay

Olly Stevens - Jonathan Bailey

Danny Latimer - Oskar McNamara

Chloe Latimer - Charlotte Beaumont

Liz Roper - Susan Brown

Tom Miller - Adam Wilson

Nige Carter - Joe Sims

Jack Marshall - David Bradley

Dean Thomas - Jacob Anderson

Broadchurch begins on Monday 4th March at 9pm on ITV.

Find out more about the series here