- Detective Ellie Miller returns from holiday to find that her promotion to inspector was given to an outsider, named Alec Hardy, and that the son of her close friend has supposedly committed suicide.
- 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 suspects and tendency to call her by her surname. Ellie's nephew, Olly Stevens, cub reporter for the Broadchurch Echo, throws a spanner in the works when he latches onto the investigation and mentions the victim's name on Twitter. This attracts the attention of Karen White from the national Daily Herald, seeking a human interest story, and she arrives at the press conference where Hardy, convinced that Danny was abducted from home before being strangled, swears that the murderer will be brought to justice.—don @ minifie-1
- DS Ellie Miller returns from a 3 week holiday to find that her hoped for promotion to Detective Inspector has instead gone to Alec Hardy, who started working a week ago. When a body is found on the beach, Miller recognizes the victim as 11 year-old Danny Latimer, a family friend who frequently played with her own son of the same age. The death was made to look as if he might have jumped from the cliff's edge but forensics find no evidence to that effect and conclude the scene was staged. The pathologist determines that Danny was strangled and from the bruising, it was someone with large hands, likely a male. Broadchurch is a small, close-knit community where everyone knows everyone else and Miller errs when local reporter Olly Stevens asks her if the victim is Danny Latimer. He soon posts a report on Twitter and a reporter from the national media, Karen White, takes an interest in the story. Miller's son knows something but doesn't tell her anything.—garykmcd
- At night in the English seaside resort town of Broadchurch, a ten year old boy stands at the edge of a cliff and looks at the beach below. Blood drips from one of his hands.
The next morning Beth Latimer wakes up late after all the clocks in her house stop. As she races to get her husband Mark and daughter Chloe out of the house she inquires about their son Danny but Mark says that the boy must have already left to do his paper route as he hasn't seen him. Chloe tries to beg off going to school, saying she's sick, but Beth disbelieves her.
Mark walks through the center of town on his way to work, greeting several people he knows including Maggie Radcliffe, who runs the local newspaper, Olly a reporter at the paper, Becca Fisher who owns the local hotel/pub, the local minister Paul Coates, and family friend Ellie Miller who is returning to work as a police detective. He's picked up in the company van by his coworker Nige who asks him about "last night". Mark demurs.
Ellie returns to work at the police station after several weeks maternity leave. She gives gifts to her coworkers but is quickly called into her bosses office where she is informed that a promotion to Deputy Inspector which Ellie had been expecting will go to someone else. Ellie is furious, stating that she only took the time off because she had been assured that the position would wait for her. She is even more angry when she learns that the position has gone to a man despite her boss's previous insistence that "this area needs a female DI" and that the new DI, an experienced investigator named Alec Hardy had been in charge of "the Sandbrook murders".
Beth goes to a school football game which Danny was supposed to attend but becomes alarmed when she can't find him and learns that no one has seen him that day. She begins calling around and learns from Jack Marshall that Danny did not show up for his paper route that morning. She asks Danny's friend Tom Miller, Ellie's son, about Danny's whereabouts but the boy indicates he doesn't know anything. While driving along a coastal road, Beth gets caught in a traffic jam. When she asks another motorist what's going on she learns that the police found a body on the beach nearby. Beth frantically runs towards the beach.
On the beach, forensic technicians are examining a body as police establish a perimeter to keep onlookers away. Alec Hardy approaches, pleading under his breath "Oh god don't do this to me" and sees that the boyd is that a young boy. Ellie Miller arrives but becomes distraught when she recognizes the boy as Danny Latimer, her son's best friend. Hardy admonishes her to "shut it off" because they're working a case. He asks if the cliff is a suicide spot and Ellie tells him no. Beth soon arrives and runs towards the body past the police barricade. The officers and Ellie try to stop her, but Beth recognizes Danny's shoes and becomes hysterical.
At the local newspaper, Olly returns from covering the local soccer game and festival. He receives an email from the Daily Mail about his job application and opens it only to find a rejection letter. Maggie sends a dejected Olly to the beach to look into the closure.
Atop the cliff over the beach Hardy and Ellie talk with the forensic technicians who state that the angle of the body and the evidence atop the cliff make it unlikely that Danny jumped or fell. The technician doubts that Danny was even atop the cliff. As they leave the beach, they are approached by Olly, who is Ellie's nephew. He asks about the body and whether there's been an ID. They tell him that they have no comment and that a formal statement will be coming.
Ellie and Hardy travel to the Latimer house where they make the formal announcement that they found Danny dead. They question the family about the previous night and Beth says that she last saw him in his bedroom about 9pm the night before. They also say that there were no signs of forced entry to the house. Mark Latimer asks to see the body, hoping that the boy was misidentified as Danny. At the morgue he identifies the dead boy as Danny and says goodbye to his son.
At an internal police briefing, Ellie informs her colleagues that Beth had Chloe when she was fifteen and Mark was seventeen. Both Beth and Chloe were watching tv the previous night and then went to bed. Mark was out on an emergency call for his plumbing job and returned around 3am but did not check on Danny. Hardy stresses the need to keep details of the case secret from the public until they are officially ready to announce them. The local police chief takes Hardy for a walk where she questions whether he is the best man for the job. She states that she doesn't "want Sandbrook to become a liability." Hardy derides the quality of her existing investigators and insists that Sandbrook isn't a liability but rather an asset because it makes him motivated the solve the killing.
Ellie and Hardy question Jack Marshall, a shop owner who employed Danny on a paper route. He indicates that nothing seemed wrong with the boy but that he only saw him briefly on any given day and so wouldn't necessarily know. They next visit the coroner who gives his findings that Danny was strangled, probably by a male due to the size of the hands, sometime between 10pm and 4am. There was no sign of sexual violence and the coroner says that the killer was likely looking Danny in the face as he strangled him.
Ellie and Hardy return to the Latimer House where they inform them that the police are considering Danny's death as suspicious. Beth says she should have checked on Danny but Ellie tells her not to blame herself. Hardy promises to find the killer. Beth breaks down in tears and Chloe quietly slips out. She meets with her boyfriend, and older boy. He comforts her and then asks if her parents know about them, saying that he's concerned because she is still underage. He then takes her on his dirt bike to the beach where she lays one of Danny's favorite stuffed animals down as a makeshift memorial. Olly, who is lurking nearby recognizes Chloe. He calls Ellie and asks if the body is that of Danny Latimer. Ellie repeats that she cannot make a statement but Olly realizes that his identification is correct and hangs up. Ellie calls Olly back angrily and insists that she did not give a confirmation and that he cannot publish it. Olly dithers for some time and then sends out a tweet tentatively identifying the body as Danny's.
At the Latimer house the police are taking away Danny's computer to be examined when Chloe storms in demanding to know why they have released Danny's name despite promises not to. Alec Hardy berates his colleagues for the leak and then is forced to go on local tv to confirm that Danny is the victim and that they are treating his death as suspicious. In London, reporter Karen White is working transcribing press releases when a colleague informs her about the twitter alert on Danny's death. When she sees Alec Hardy on tv she expresses amazement that he could still get a job after Sandbrook. She asks her boss to let her travel to Broadchurch to cover the crime, but he begs off as Danny "doesn't fit the profile" for a big story and he doesn't want to spend the money. When Hardy returns to his room at the Trader's Hotel, Becca Fisher expresses her condolences and asks if the beach will reopen soon. Hardy simply stares at her. He is then approached by Maggie and Olly. Maggie makes Olly apologize for tweeting Danny's identity and states that in the future all of the paper's reportage on the murder will go through her.
Returning home, Ellie talks with her husband who asks whether they should be worried about the kids and commiserates with her over her dislike of her new boss. When she expresses doubt about her ability to continue the investigation he reassures her. At the Latimer house, Beth asks Mark why he didn't check in on Danny when he returned but he turns the question back on her. She then asks where he was last night and he reiterates that he was on a job. Ellie talks to her son Tom, informing him about Danny's death. She tells him that the police may want to ask him questions soon and asks if Danny was upset about anything recently. Tom shakes his head no. However, when Ellie leaves, he deletes several text messages from Danny from his mobile phone. He then goes on his computer and deletes emails which he received from Danny.
Ellie shows Hardy cctv footage from the town center the night of Danny's death. It shows a boy wearing clothes like Danny's and of the same height, riding Danny's skateboard down the road. The tape seems to show that Danny snuck out and was not abducted. Hardy questions why Danny went out and who he was meeting. Ellie mentions that they should also look into what happened to Danny's skateboard and his mobile phone, neither of which were found by he body. Later, Hardy holds a formal press conference where he notes that the murder is a "terrible anomaly" in the low crime area and he promise that "We will catch whoever did this."
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What is the broadcast (satellite or terrestrial TV) release date of Episode #1.1 (2013) in Brazil?
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