page_title: Broadchurch (series 1)
section_title: Conception
hierarchical_section_title: Broadchurch (series 1) / Production / Conception
caption_attribution_description: English: Coastal rock in the Jurassic Coast , Dorset, England
context_page_description: The first series of the British crime drama Broadchurch originally aired on the ITV broadcast network in the United Kingdom from 4 March 2013 to 22 April 2013. The eight-episode series began with the murder of an 11-year-old boy in the fictional, close-knit coastal town of Broadchurch in Dorset, United Kingdom. The series depicted the impact that suspicion and media attention have on the community.
  Though Broadchurch was first conceived of in 2003, creator and writer Chris Chibnall first began fleshing out the story and writing scripts for the first episodes in 2011. He approached ITV in autumn 2011 with the series, and the network quickly approved it for production. The role of Reverend Paul Coates was written for Arthur Darvill, and leads David Tennant and Olivia Colman were the first cast. Other roles were cast using auditions. Principal photography began on 13 August 2012 in Dorset. Most scenes were shot on location, with the majority of filming in and around Clevedon and West Bay. Soundstages were used for some interior scenes. Dialogue rarely departed from the scripts, but other aspects of the performances were improvised.
context_section_description: Broadchurch creator and writer Chris Chibnall described the project as a labour of love. He spent more than a decade in the United Kingdom working on various television programs, and initially conceived Broadchurch about 2003 while working on his first series, Born and Bred. The concept was to explore how a child's murder affects a small, close-knit community, and how the characters react to the media attention and the mutual suspicion that arises.
  The location for the series was partly inspired by the Jurassic Coast in Dorset, where Chibnall lived. Chibnall says that he initially did not have a location in mind for Broadchurch, but work-related issues made setting the show in Dorset appealing. From 2006 to 2011, Chibnall had spent most of his time travelling about the U.K. and Ireland, working on Torchwood, Law & Order: UK, and Camelot. Setting the show in Dorset meant Chibnall would not have to spend time away from his home and family. Chibnall's decision to set the show on the Jurassic Coast also helped him generate more ideas for the show and tighten the writing. For example, Dorset's most famous native son, poet and author Thomas Hardy, lent his last name to one of the main characters (DI Alec Hardy). Thomas Hardy's use of the term "Wessex" was used as the name of the fictional Wessex Police, and character Jack Marshall reads the Hardy novel Jude the Obscure. Chibnall also drew heavily on Hardy's concept of a "wrathful god" for the series.
  Even the title of the series came from the Dorset setting. Chibnall invented the name "Broadchurch" based on two towns in Dorset: "I thought a lot about the literary heritage of this county. In true Thomas Hardy style I came up with a compound location name of Broadchurch combining the West Dorset hamlets of Broadstone and Whitchurch."
caption: The Jurassic Coast of Dorset provided inspiration for Broadchurch.
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