The first series of his hit drama was showered with praise and garlanded with Baftas. The second seemed to draw criticism from all sides – not least lawyers who criticised its portrayal of a murder trial.
Now Broadchurch writer Chris Chibnall has defended his show against the critics, accepting that some viewers enjoyed the second series less than the first, but standing by his decisions – arguing that good drama is not about recreating instances word for word.
“I made a deliberate decision not to comment during transmission,” says Chibnall, writing for the Guardian. “But now the series has finished, there’s one issue I do want to address: Legalgate.”
Broadchurch came under fire for various legal “blunders” but Chibnall defends the process, as seen on screen, as being devised “as a result of months of research and consultation” with both legal and police advisors who gave notes on every script. The team were prepared for the plot to be analysed, he writes. “We knew our decisions would be chewed over. And they were.”
Chibnall chose to focus on the trial of Joe Miller, who confessed to the murder of 11-year-old Danny Latimer at the end of the first series of Broadchurch, because of a desire to explore the impact of a trial on the characters he had created.
That focus necessarily meant that the complexities of the trial were condensed, Chibnall writes: “Exact process and wording has to be dramatised … That’s not a scandal, it’s a legitimate dramatic technique. Drama is not a literal portrayal of events. It’s a depiction, it’s impressionistic.”
Replying to criticism that Mark Latimer would not have been named as an alternate killer by defence barristers, Chibnall argues: “Our advisors were – and remain (I checked) – adamant on this: if they were defending, they could and would run this approach.” Similarly, he says, the cross-examining of DS Ellie Miller was not seen as unrealistic by police advisors. “Every opinion is open to argument. But we were not cavalier,” he writes.
Viewing figures for the second series of Broadchurch fell considerably after the season premiere, with seven-day figures (which include timeshifted viewing) showing a drop of around 1.5 million viewers for the second episode, which attracted close to 7 million people. Viewing for the rest of the series stabilised at around 6.5 million.
ITV announced that the show will return following the broadcast of the series two finale. Chibnall promises: “We’re now working on the third series. It will be different again. There’ll be plenty more to discuss.”
