The first series of Broadchurch marked a triumphant return to water-cooler TV. A nation that had become used to gorging on box sets was forced to revert to old-fashioned weekly viewing. If you didn’t, then you had to sign out of Twitter and walk around humming with your fingers in your ears or risk finding out who killed Danny Latimer.
On one level, this feeling of taking part in a community cultural activity was nice. But it was also frustrating. Our “want it now” attitude is so hard-wired that having to wait a week to see the next episode can be torture, or – at the other extreme – lead to a kind of apathy.
This is why the Broadchurch tie-ins from Little, Brown imprint Sphere are so inspired. Viewers of the new series can get their fix between episodes by downloading ebooks that give the backstory on characters and events. A new story is released after each episode is broadcast.
The first is from the point of view of Olivia Colman’s troubled character, DS Miller. The second concerns the career doubts of Broadchurch Echo editor, Maggie. Two things save this enterprise from being a gimmick: the fact that each book works as self-contained short story; and the quality of the writer, Erin Kelly (working in collaboration with series creator Chris Chibnall). Kelly, best known for her debut thriller, The Poison Tree, wrote a novel based on the first series of Broadchurch. Her stylish prose is free from the cliches of the genre, and her sensitive characterisation reaches the places a 45-minute episode can’t.
