In the television series Broadchurch, the fictional town of Broadchurch is located in Dorset. The British crime drama uses Dorset’s coastal landscape as the setting for investigations, family conflict, and community suspicion after the death of an eleven-year-old boy.
The series was created by Chris Chibnall and first broadcast on ITV in 2013. David Tennant plays Detective Inspector Alec Hardy, while Olivia Colman plays Detective Sergeant Ellie Miller. Their investigation forms the main narrative of the first series and explores how a murder affects a small, closely connected community.
Although Broadchurch is fictional, the production filmed extensively in Dorset, including locations around West Bay and Bridport. The county’s cliffs, beach, and seaside geography became strongly associated with the programme’s visual identity.
Broadchurch is sometimes confused with the real filming locations or with other southwestern English counties. Dorset is the fictional county named in the programme’s setting, while the series was also adapted in the United States as Gracepoint, with Tennant reprising a lead role.