The Coroner (TV series)
| The Coroner | |
|---|---|
|
First episode titlecard | |
| Genre | Drama |
| Created by | Sally Abbott |
| Starring | |
| Composer(s) | Debbie Wiseman |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 10 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Will Trotter |
| Producer(s) | Sandra McIver |
| Cinematography |
|
| Running time | 45 minutes |
| Production company(s) | BBC Birmingham |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC One |
| Original release | 16 November 2015 – present |
| External links | |
| BBC website | |
The Coroner[1] is a daytime drama series produced by BBC Birmingham,[2] starring Claire Goose as solicitor Jane Kennedy as she takes over the job of coroner in a South Devon coastal town she left as a teenager.[2][3][4] Matt Bardock stars as Detective Sergeant Davey Higgins who was Kennedy's childhood sweetheart, and together they investigate local deaths.[5]
Plot
Jane Kennedy is a high-flying solicitor; after another failed relationship, she returns to the small South Devon seaside town she left as a teenager to take up the post of Coroner. She finds herself working with Davey Higgins, the boy who broke her heart and is now the local Detective Sergeant. Jane and Davey investigate any sudden, violent or unexplained deaths in the fictional world of Lighthaven, based originally on Salcombe in the South Hams district of South Devon. Kennedy is assisted by Clint Holman. Her mother Judith, her mother's boyfriend, pub owner, Mick Sturrock and Kennedy's 15 year old daughter Beth also feature in the single episode stories.[6]
Controversy over originality
The series is not based on or inspired by, according to the BBC, novelist and screenwriter M R Hall's best-selling books including The Coroner. Hall stated he was "unhappy" about the "enormous similarities", but the BBC say any resemblance with his books - also about an unusually pro-active, Land Rover driving, forty-something female solicitor who after a failed relationship returns to the West Country to take up the post of coroner - are purely coincidental. [7][8]
Characters
Jane Kennedy (Claire Goose) is a coroner who after another failed relationship returns to her home town of Lighthaven and her mothers home. She is good at her job and running the home but has trust issues with her daughter and her staff which means she gets involved in cases more than a coroner normally would.
Davey Higgins (Matt Bardock) is the childhood sweetheart of Jane and the reason she left Lighhaven. He is married to Annette (not unhappily just to the wrong person) and would never betray his wife. He is a Detective Sergeant with the South Dart Police.
Judith Kennedy (Beatie Edney) is Jane's mother and is confident and happy with her boyfriend Mick and works for him as a barmaid in "The Black Dog".
Mick Sturrock (Ivan Kaye) landlord of the local public house "The Black Dog". He’s loud, rude, funny and very dodgy with his finger in every pie and can supply anything; fags, booze, watches or information. He adores Judith but is less keen on Jane who accidentally set fire to his pub when she was younger and got him investigated by the Inland Revenue.
Clint Holman (Oliver Gomm) is in his mid twenties, good with computers, a slacker and keen surfer. He is the Coroner’s Officer who normally carries out the investigations but with an allergy to dead bodies and Jane with her trust issues which makes her insist on leading the investigations.
Beth Kennedy (Grace Hogg-Robinson) 15 year old daughter of Jane, a goth obsessed with death with Jane’s same sense of fairness and doing the right thing.
Production
Conception
Sally Abbott created The Coroner from an idea by Will Trotter, executive producer and head of BBC Drama Birmingham, about a woman coroner aged about 40 and in a location such as the Cotswolds or Devon. The series would have self contained stories with drama and humour; a formula successfully used in Father Brown from the same production team. The two lead characters Jane and Davey were based on Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracey in "Adams Rib" with the unresolved sexual tension between them. Abbott wrote the Davey character with Matt Bardock in mind. She created four other characters to complete the cast.[9]
Filming
Filming took place from April 2015 at locations around South Devon and Cornwall.
Because of difficult access at Salcombe for film crews and equipment, Dartmouth became the location of the Coroners office at Bayards Cove and focus of the series. The production office was located at Dartington where some interior scenes were filmed. Filming began in mid April for 15 weeks (75 filming days). The episodes were divided into blocks of two with the same director, assistant director, and director of photography.[10]
Locations
Locations included Dartmouth, Torquay, and Broadsands Beach, Paignton. The Mansion, now a community building, in Totnes was used as the Coroners Court. A brass plate was attached to the brickwork.[11] The Old Customs House in Bayard's Cove, Dartmouth was used as the Coroners Office.[12] The exterior and interior of Oldway Mansion is used as Lighthaven town hall.
The derelict Crooked Spaniards Inn, at Cargreen, Cornwall provides the set for The Black Dog Inn, Lighthaven's local. The tower at Gribbin Head, Cornwall featured in the first episode "First Love".[13]
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The Old Custom House, Bayards Cove, Dartmouth
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The derelict Crooked Spaniards public house Cargreen, Cornwall
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Gribbin Tower, Gibbins Head, Cornwall
Cast
- Claire Goose as Jane Kennedy
- Matt Bardock as Detective Sergeant Davey Higgins
- Beatie Edney as Judith Kennedy
- Ivan Kaye as Mick Sturrock
- Oliver Gomm as Clint Holman
- Grace Hogg-Robinson as Beth Kennedy
Episodes
Series 1 (2015)
| No. overall | No. in series | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | "First Love" | Ian Barber | Sally Abbott | 16 November 2015 |
| A 17 year old teenager, Steve Kernan, is found dead at the foot of a tower and Detective Sergeant Davey Higgins believes it was a suicide, but Jane thinks there is more to the case than meets the eye as the investigation uncovers an abusive father, a pregnant girlfriend with a possessive father and Kernan's best friend, Matt Wickens, who was with Beth Kennedy the night Kernan died. | |||||
| 2 | 2 | "How to Catch a Lobster" | Matt Carter | Al Smith | 17 November 2015 |
| When a third body washes up on shore in a month, Jane is convinced it is a botched sea burial, but Davey believes it is a local man lost at sea in the last fortnight. Both are determined to prove each other wrong and as the facts emerge regarding a £75,000 robbery at a local casino, a fake Rolex watch and a tattoo on the missing man's body the truth emerges. Clint Holman who has been seeking information from three undertakers, who are rivals and look to the Coroner for business, provides a clue. | |||||
| 3 | 3 | "That's the Way to Do It"[14] | Matt Carter | David Bowker | 18 November 2015 |
| The body of a Punch and Judy man is found drowned on the beach. The day before he had been closed down by Una Drake, mayor of Lighthaven. Later she is found murdered in a hotel room. Davey and Jane look for a connection between the two deaths from the dead man's drunken friend, the hotel singer and gigolo, the mayor's daughter, and the mayor's estranged husband. | |||||
| 4 | 4 | "The Fisherman's Tale" | Ian Barber | Ann Marie Di Mambro | 19 November 2015 |
| Peter Bradshaw at the reopening of his first fish restaurant is shot dead by a hired sniper. Davey's investigation is undermined by Detective Inspector Ben Marshall from Scotland Yard who believes the killing has international connections. Bradshaw's wife had recently withdrawn £100,000, pink diamonds they owned are missing. A male lover of Bradshaw' surfaces and an old army colleague who has an alibi. Jane's mother Judith while eating an ice cream bumped into the killer leaving a vital link | |||||
| 5 | 5 | "Gilt" | Ian Barber | Kit Lambert | 20 November 2015 |
| Errol Prowse is found dead in his locked and bolted home with a tin of gold coins buried with a curse by pirate Long Ben. He and his small group of treasure hunters had found the coins the day before. Davey thinks he died of natural causes but Jane is not so sure as the night before he had phoned her to report the find. The circumstances become suspicious when it is found Prowse had been poisoned, the coins were fake confirmed by the local museum owner. The suspects all seem to be affected by the curse including Jane herself. | |||||
| 6 | 6 | "Capsized" | Adrian Bean | Matthew Cooke and Vincent Lund | 23 November 2015 |
| Ian Igby, out on probation for theft, is found dead in a container; one of many washed up on the beaches of South Devon from a sunken ship. Suspected at first of being one of the many looters salvaging the cargo the investigation leads to his girlfriend, his probation officer, his girlfriends father who was also his employer in the docks. Jane and Davey have to break a wall of silence to uncover the truth not helped by Judith and Mick who have been salvaging the goods from the containers. | |||||
| 7 | 7 | "The Salcombe Selkie" | Ian Barber | Dan Muirden | 24 November 2015 |
| When Leah Walker walks ashore, risen like a Selkie, her parents are stunned after burying her seven months ago when her body was discovered five months after disappearing over board on her father's boat. Suffering amnesia she begins to remember where she was held and the evidence implicates her godfather who is subsequently murdered and Leah's father arrested. Jane becomes involved in discovering who was the girl buried in her place and why the pathologist got the DNA identification wrong. | |||||
| 8 | 8 | "Napoleon's Violin" | Adrian Bean | Sally Abbott | 25 November 2015 |
| The patriarch of a local aristocratic family is found stabbed to death by his dysfunctional family, his son, daughter, the son's teenage daughter and a writer employed to write the history of valuable violin belonging to Napoleon. The violin is missing and the investigation reveals the father's depression, the son's onset Parkinson disease, the daughters agoraphobia, the granddaughters morose nature since her own mother' disappearance when she was four years old and the writer had a prison record. | |||||
| 9 | 9 | "The Deep Freeze" | Niall Fraser | Sally Abbott | 26 November 2015 |
| Robert Talbot, the owner of an ice-cream factory is found dead in a walk-in freezer with a defective lock, by his factory manager of 40 years. The successful factory was in the process of being sold. Jane suspects his glamourous wife, whose previous two husbands died mysteriously, while Davey suspects the son who has debts, but he has an alibi provided by the factory manager who is heartbroken because she did not have the freezer lock repaired. Jane and Davey fall out over their opinions and Clint is avoiding the son. | |||||
| 10 | 10 | "Dirty Dancing" | Niall Fraser | Ann Marie Di Mambro | 27 November 2015 |
| During Lighthaven's Latin American Dance Festival, Cuban dancer Isabella Martinez dies in the street; her body is stolen from the mortuary and found later washed up on a beach with her stomach cut open. Jane and Davey question the organisers of the festival who paid for her air ticket from Cuba and Jane becomes friendly with an Egyptian doctor, practicing illegally, seeking asylum in the UK. Davey arrest the dead girl's brother when he discovers his name differs from hers. | |||||
Series 2
A second series of 10 episodes was commissioned in February 2016.[15]
References
- ↑ "The Coroner". BBC. Retrieved 11 January 2016.
- 1 2 "Claire Goose and Matt Bardock lead the cast of a new BBC One drama, The Coroner". BBC. 17 April 2015. Retrieved 11 January 2016.
- ↑ Lee, Ben (17 April 2015). "Claire Goose and Casualty's Matt Bardock for BBC One's The Coroner". Digital Spy. Retrieved 11 January 2016.
- ↑ HERomPEllis (9 November 2015). "BBC drama filmed in South Devon set to air next week". Torquay Herald Express. Retrieved 11 January 2016.
- ↑ "Claire Goose and Matt Bardock preview 'brutal, fantastical' new daytime drama, The Coroner". What's on TV. 11 November 2015. Retrieved 11 January 2016.
- ↑ "BBC media centre". Retrieved 12 November 2015.
- ↑ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/bbc/12006412/BBC-accused-of-misappropriating-idea-for-new-coroner-drama.html
- ↑ http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/obiter/bone-of-contention/5052311.article
- ↑ Abbott, Sally. "BBC blog". writers Room. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
- ↑ O'Reagan, Mike. "Line producer". By The Dart. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
- ↑ "Herald Express". Retrieved 11 November 2015.
- ↑ BBC website 7th character http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p037zsl4 Retrieved 15 November 2015
- ↑ Mikes, CG. "Cornish Guardian". Cornish Guardian.
- ↑ "That's the Way to Do It". BBC. Retrieved 11 January 2016.
- ↑ "Latest News". BBC Media Cente. Retrieved 24 February 2016.