Have you nailed the Broadchurch killer? As our favourite whodunit reaches its climax, we look at who is odds-on favourite to be revealed as the murderer in hit ITV show
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The show has become the most talked-about crime mystery for more than a decade and fans have been racking their brains to identify the culprit since the drama starring David Tennant launched eight weeks ago.
The finger of suspicion has been pointed at virtually every major character and fans have staked bets on the killer’s identity.
Exciting: It is the nail-biting moment the ten million fans of TV whodunit Broadchurch have all been waiting for: the killer of schoolboy Danny Latimer will be revealed in the final episode tomorrow night
Favourite is Joe Miller, the seemingly mild-mannered husband of Detective Sergeant Ellie Miller, the officer investigating the case alongside Detective Inspector Alec Hardy, played by Tennant. Another suspect is the local vicar.
ITV has decided not to show previews of the final episode to television critics in an attempt to keep the secret, and yesterday the broadcaster refused even to put any of the show’s actors or production team up for interviews.
Only a handful of the show’s cast know the murderer’s identity and the actor playing the character was only informed a couple of days before the crucial scenes were shot.
Here is our list of candidates – and the odds you can get on them being the Broadchurch killer . . .
WHO IS HE?
The mild-mannered husband of Detective Sergeant Ellie Miller who used to be a paramedic but is now a house husband.
He was not in the frame at the beginning of the series but he started to fall under suspicion in last week’s episode.
Under suspicion: Matthew Gravelle as Joe Miller is pictured centre with Adam Wilson as Tom Miller, left, and Olivia Colman as Ellie Miller, right
WHY DO WE THINK HE DID IT?
He fits the description of the man seen carrying Danny’s dead body from a boat and on to the beach. His 11-year-old son Tom is known to have wiped material from a mobile phone and a laptop. Is the boy trying to cover up for his father’s crime?
He fits the description of the man seen carrying Danny’s dead body from a boat and on to the beach. His 11-year-old son Tom is known to have wiped material from a mobile phone and a laptop. Is the boy trying to cover up for his father’s crime?
WHY WE AREN’T 100% SURE:
Until last week there was no reason to assume Joe was anything but a devoted husband and loving father.
Until last week there was no reason to assume Joe was anything but a devoted husband and loving father.
WHO IS HE?
He is the angelic-looking but troubled 11-year-old son of DS Ellie Miller and a friend of Danny.
WHY DO WE THINK HE DID IT?
He has destroyed information held on his mobile telephone and laptop. The vicar disputes the idea that Tom and Danny were friends and insists that he has had to stop them fighting.
WHY WE AREN’T 100% SURE:
He may have destroyed the information to protect his father.
WHO IS HE?
He is the local vicar and a recovering alcoholic who runs the computer club which Danny and friend Tom Miller used to be members of.
Creepy: Rev Paul Coates, who is played by Arthur Darvill, is pictured
WHY DO WE THINK HE DID IT?
DI Alec Hardy believes Coates may be the killer and suspects that he may have sexually abused the boy.
He tells him: ‘You worry me.’ On the day of Jack Marshall’s funeral he is seen with his hand on Tom Miller’s knee.
Police are curious that the vicar did not tell them about his battle with alcoholism or that he had ‘assaulted’ a child some years earlier. Coates tells the police: ‘I didn’t assault him, it was a joke gone wrong. He was twice my size.’
WHY WE AREN’T 100% SURE:
He stood up for Jack Marshall when he was being hounded over the child sex abuse allegations. He has also been very supportive of Beth and Mark Latimer.
WHO IS HE?
An ambitious local newspaper journalist who is also the nephew of Ellie Miller.
WHY DO WE THINK HE DID IT?
He is desperate for a job on a national newspaper and does all he can to capitalise on the murder.
He tweets details of the boy’s death to a national newspaper and is the first to uncover incriminating evidence about Jack Marshall. His father owned the boat that was used in the crime and then destroyed.
WHY WE AREN’T 100% SURE:
He is simply doing his best to stay on top of a local story.
WHO IS HE?
Demonic-looking handyman who works for Latimer’s plumbing firm.
Carter has just been told by Susan Wright, a new arrival to Broadchurch, that he is the son she was forced to give up for adoption.
Social services and the police accused her of being an unfit mother after her late husband was found guilty of sexually assaulting and killing her eldest daughter.
WHY DO WE THINK HE DID IT?
Susan Wright claims she saw Carter carrying Danny’s body off a boat and on to the beach. Police have also discovered a cache of weapons including a crossbow in Carter’s van and shed.
Carter insists he was nowhere near the beach on the night of the boy’s death and said he originally lied about his movements to cover up the fact that he was poaching for game.
He has also threatened to use the crossbow on both Wright and her beloved pet dog.
WHY WE AREN’T 100% SURE:
He is clearly devoted to Mark Latimer and enjoys helping out around the Latimer family home. Is he really capable of killing his best friend’s son?
WHO IS HE?
Telephone engineer who helped install extra phone lines in the police’s makeshift incident room. He also says that he is a psychic and passes on messages he claims to have received from the dead boy.
WHY DO WE THINK HE DID IT?
He seems to know a great deal about the case. It was Connelly who first alerted the police to the fact that a boat, which was subsequently burnt, was used in the crime.
He also seems to know that Detective Inspector Alec Harvey has an unspecified former connection with the seaside town. The police have grudgingly turned to him for help but previously exposed him as a bankrupt with convictions for vehicle theft, petty theft and conspiracy to defraud.
WHY WE AREN’T 100% SURE:
He seems genuinely concerned to do all he can to help the family and the police.
WHO IS HE?
Jack was the owner of the local newsagent’s shop where Danny used to work doing a paper round. He also ran the local Sea Brigade of which Danny was a member.
WHY DO WE THINK HE DID IT?
Prime suspect before he committed suicide during the investigation - after the press revealed he was once jailed for having sex with an under-age girl. He was branded a paedophile after claims he used to try to hug boys in the Sea Brigade.
WHY WE AREN’T 100% SURE:
Police appear to have ruled him out of their inquiries following his death. Even Daniel’s grandmother says Jack ‘wouldn’t hurt a fly’.
WHO IS HE?
He is the grieving father of Danny Latimer and the owner of a local plumbing company.
Grieving: Jodie Whittaker as Beth Latimer, right, and Andrew Bucahn as Mark Latimer, left, are pictured. They play the parents of dead child Danny Latimer
WHY DO WE THINK HE DID IT?
Latimer was the very first suspect in the case. Police called him in for questioning when his alibi fell apart and even his wife began to suspect him. In a desperate moment she asked DS Miller, who is also a family friend: ‘Do you think he killed Danny?’
WHY WE AREN’T 100% SURE:
He lied about his movements on the night of the murder to cover up his affair with hotel owner Becca Fisher.
WHO IS HE?
He is a local sixth-form student.
WHY DO WE THINK HE DID IT?
He is involved in drug dealing and uses Chloe as a go-between to hotel owner Becca.
He was very keen to ensure that Jack Marshall was branded a paedophile and claimed he had been thrown out of the Sea Brigade for refusing Jack’s advances.
WHY WE AREN’T 100% SURE:
He appears to have been telling the truth about Jack’s fondness for ‘hugging’ boys.
WHO IS SHE?
Becca is the owner of the hotel where DI Alec Hardy is staying during the investigation.
WHY DO WE THINK SHE DID IT?
She had an affair with Mark Latimer and supplied drugs to Danny’s sister Chloe and her boyfriend Dean Thomas.
WHY WE AREN’T 100% SURE:
She agrees to let Alec stay at the hotel for reduced rates and appears keen to help with the inquiry.
WHO IS SHE?
Fearsome-looking cleaner and misanthrope who lives in a caravan close to the murder scene. Her late husband’s crimes tore her family apart and she is the birth mother of Nigel Carter.
WHY DO WE THINK SHE DID IT?
She found Danny’s skateboard which he was riding on the night of his death but hid it in the cupboard in her caravan.
Her fingerprints are all over the board. She is a chain smoker and several of her brand of cigarettes were found closed to the body.
She has admitted seeing the body being brought to shore but did nothing to alert the police. She tried to implicate Danny’s father by giving false information about his movements to the police.
WHY WE AREN’T 100% SURE:
She has been a grieving mother herself and perhaps she really thinks she is trying to protect her son from himself.
WHO IT SHOULD NOT BE:
Fans will be stunned if the killer turns out to be a character they have had no reason to suspect.
They believe Danny’s grief-stricken mother Beth Latimer and Maggie Radcliffe, the big-hearted editor of the Broadchurch Echo, had nothing to do with the crime.
They are also assuming that the seriously ill DI Alec Hardy, played by David Tennant, and his long-suffering assistant DS Ellie Miller are in the clear.
THE TOWN IN DORSET WHERE MURDER IS GOOD FOR BUSINESS
In the fictitious town of Broadchurch, hoteliers and shopkeepers bemoan the impact the murder inquiry is having on trade.
But in the real town in which the series is set, West Bay in Dorset, business is booming.
Coach parties outnumber the fishing boats in the harbour, a rickshaw tour is planned and there is an £8-a-head walking tour that takes in the murder scene, police station and the newsagent’s.
Boost: In the real town in which Broadchurch is set, West Bay in Dorset, business is booming. This is the local newsagent
Real-life newsagent Richard Attrill, whose shop was used as the business run by murder suspect Jack Marshall – who committed suicide – says trade has flourished.
He has blurred fact and fiction by putting a poster in his window reading ‘RIP Jack Marshall, 4/3/13 – 1/4/13’ – the period he appeared in the series.
Another sign offers Pauline Quirke’s character’s caravan for sale – ‘lovely beach location’.
The fictional police station is next door to Steve Tucker’s Ellipse cafe and he is hosting a sell-out dinner and screening tomorrow to celebrate the final episode.
And the local tourist office website has been attracting a record 200 hits a minute as fans attempt to learn more about the area.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2312244/Have-nailed-Broadchurch-killer-We-look-odds-favourite-revealed-murderer.html#ixzz2RDoKnA69
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