Broadchurch tops Twitter as series two mystery is revealed
It’s been twenty long months and fifteen days since ardent fans of ITV’s unexpectedly successful crime drama were promised that ‘Broadchurch will return…’ in a surprise sting at the end of the first series.
After a delude of teasing promotional adverts and with fans tirelessly scrutinising all the clues, 9pm last night finally delivered the first episode of series two to a highly anxious audience.
Wrapped up in mystery since Danny Latimer’s killer was finally revealed back in April 2013, creator Chris Chibnall has kept his cards painfully close to his chest, with misery-starved viewers completely unaware what the second series even entailed when it seemed the story had been wrapped up neatly in the shocking conclusion.
While yesterday’s return to the fictional Dorset seaside town has been advertised heavily for weeks now, fans were no more clued up about the series’ new focus, apart from the fact that something very bad was probably going to happen in a bluebell-covered field.
Opening up with a little over 6 million viewers back in March 2013, DI Hardy (David Tennant) and DS Miller’s (Olivia Coleman) search for the little boy’s killer captured the attention of the TV viewing public and gained a lot of media attention, with the distressing conclusion of the case netting 8.3 million viewers eight weeks later.
Monday night’s return to the sinister cliffs of Dorset managed to outdo the series one opener but failed to topple the grim finale.
In total, 7.3 million viewers tuned in to see Hardy’s ghosts literally come back to haunt him, with the reveal that series two would be exploring the much-alluded to Sandbrook case from his troubled past, as well as the legal and emotional fallout from Danny’s murder trial playing a major role.
It seems the avalanche of fervent praise, the heap of gushing acting awards and even a cancelled American remake that popped up in Broadchurch‘s hiatus wasn’t enough to knock the ship off course, with relieved fans seemingly happy with the new direction and even helping the show top yesterday’s TV Twitter rankings.
The broadcaster’s success wasn’t just limited to the 9pm slot, with its soaps accounting for three of yesterday’s top five shows.
At 7pm on Emmerdale, those lovely Barton boys were busy shouting angrily at each other all dramatically, just for a change. 6.5 million viewers tuned in to see Finn reveal the truth about their mother to his brothers, netting a 31% share.
Straight up afterwards the first of two trips to Coronation Street (ITV) pulled in the day’s biggest audience, with 7.8 million viewers (a 34% share) tuning in at 7:30pm to see David Platt’s family troubles go from bad to worse.
The second helping of Weatherfield woes at 8:30pm grabbed the fourth spot as 6.5 million viewers watched as David realised his stepson had gone missing.
While ITV was having a great old time of it, BBC One somehow managed to secure a healthy audience of its own, with a whole evening of Match of the Day Live (7:30pm). The two and a half hour coverage of AFC Wimbledon facing off against Liverpool in the FA Cup third-round tie at Kingsmeadow pulled in an average audience of 5.6 million and a 23% share.
Coming second in the Twitter TV rankings was the new series of Channel 4’s The Undateables at 9pm. 1.9 million viewers watched the latest quest for love against the odds, resulting in the channel’s biggest hot of the day and an 8% share.
Meanwhile, Channel 5 was busy scrapping the gutter and providing viewers with yet another new show about people on benefits, this time entitled Benefits (9pm). This very special opening episode attempted to kick off some kind of knee-jerk outrage intelligent discussion about people who are too fat to work.
An audience of 1.4 million viewers provided Channel 5 with its biggest hit of the day, translating to a 6% share. This came an hour after the grim exploitative doc 70-Stone Man: The Last Days (8pm) which sucked in 531,000 viewers.
Over on BBC Two, the latest helping of inane game show Only Connect (8pm) was watched by over 2 million viewers at 8pm, while ostentatious documentary (and pure 100% anger fuel) Rich, Russian and Living in London netted 1.3 million viewers at 9pm.
Overnight data is available each morning in mediatel.co.uk’s TV Database, with all BARB registered subscribers able to view reports for terrestrial networks and key multi-channel stations. Overnight data supplied by TRP are based on 15 minute slot averages. This may differ from tape checked figures, which are based on a programme’s actual start and end time.
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