Broadchurch

As the Dorset resort of Broadchurch prepares for the summer season 11-year old Danny Latimer goes missing. Local detective sergeant Ellie Miller returns from holiday with her husband and son to find her desired promotion to inspector has gone to outsider Alec Hardy, anxious to prove himself after gaining a poor reputation. When Danny's corpse is found on a beach the two police officers must tell his parents, Beth and Mark, sister Chloe and grandmother Liz. For Ellie it is especially hard as they are family friends. She is also irked by Hardy's brusque manner with …

When Echo editor Maggie Radcliffe refuses to let Karen in on local coverage of the murder Karen taps Olly, using the bait that she can advance his career. Ellie finds cocaine and money hidden in Chloe's room and whilst Chloe will not divulge her supplier she admits she got it on behalf of hotelier Becca Fisher for a guest. She is protecting the source, boyfriend Dean Thomas, and she too is approached by Karen in the guise of friendship. Beth, reeling under the twin pressures of grief and excessive community sympathy, confesses to vicar Paul that she is pregnant and …

Hardy continues to irritate Ellie, especially when he gets her to sit in on Mark's interview. Mark explains his finger-prints were at the murder scene because he did some work there but key-holder Susan Wright denies letting him in and work-mate Nige destroys his alibi. However hotelier Becca Fisher comes forward to admit to an affair with Mark, thus giving him a new alibi. Following Steve's theory the police find that Mark does have a boat, stained with Danny's blood though Mark explains he cut himself on a fishing trip. Beth is approached by Steve, who tells her …

The charred remains of a boat washing up on shore persuades Steve to ask Hardy to take him seriously, but since Steve has a previous record for fraud, he is ignored though Hardy believes DNA on the boat will lead to Danny's killer. Olly finds evidence that newsagent Jack was tried for sex with a minor and Maggie finds a photo of Jack with his scout troop, assisted by one Elaine Jones, now calling herself Susan Wright, but Susan threatens Maggie to back off and seems to have a hold on Nige. Hardy goes for dinner with the Millers and the atmosphere softens but on …

More clues come to light - cigarette butts found near the body and the fact that the burnt-out boat belonged to Ellie's ex- brother-in-law who left his wife Lucy, Olly's mother in debt when he left town. At the same time Tom, Ellie's son, meets Susan Wright, who offers to let him walk her dog. Beth threatens Becca over her affair with Mark and is restrained by Paul. She tells Mark she does not want his baby but later they reconcile over family photos. Jack Marshall comes under increasing suspicion as Karen tutors Olly - with whom she has sex - into writing a piece on …

Following Jack's suicide Hardy is dubbed the worst cop in England by tabloids. The town turns out to the funeral, Karen's presence, since she has returned to London being unwelcome in view of her piece on Jack. Paul's sermon lambastes Jack's persecutors but Hardy, seeing him close to sea scouts, is suspicious and discovers that the young vicar is a reformed alcoholic who hit a boy when he was still drinking. As summer turns to autumn Beth bonds with Cate Gillespie, the mother of another murdered child, who hates Hardy for his ineptitude in handling her case. Maggie …

Hardy wakes in hospital and confesses to Ellie that he has heart arrhythmia but feels he must see the case through and quickly returns to work. He later tells Maggie and Olly that it was his ex- wife, also a police officer, who ruined the Gillespie case and he took the blame for her. Ellie questions Susan, who mistrusts the police after her husband killed their daughter and hanged himself in prison. She is certain that, whilst out walking her dog at night and smoking cigarettes, she saw Nige bring Danny's body ashore in a boat. She also informs the police that she …