Broadchurch fans flock to West Dorset

‘Broadies’ are flocking to the area after seeing West Bay featured as the backdrop to the phenomenally successful show viewed by more than nine million people.

It comes as the thriller approaches what promises to be a dramatic climax next Monday.

Visitors have been heading to West Bay, Bridport and West Dorset but it has also brought locals out to re-discover the Jurassic Coast.

Roy Haines, from Woking, headed to the area specifically to track down the locations in the drama.

He said: “It is great for the area, everyone is talking about it here.”

Graham Wood, from Devon, said that Broadchurch was the spur to make him come back to an area he hasn’t visited since he was a child.

Sue Gater and Darren Lambert, from Stafford, headed to West Bay after seeing Broadchurch on TV.

Sue said: “We have been trying to pick out the places we have seen on the telly, it is very dramatic.”

Claire and Stephen Bowden, from Christchurch, said that they went to have a look after seeing the area on TV.

Traders also hope visitors will flood in during the summer when schools are on holiday to further bolster business.

Steve Tucker, of Ellipse Caffe, said: “Our trade has definitely been helped by it.

“A lot of people reasonably close to the area have said they have come down after seeing it on TV.

“They are saying that they haven’t been to West Bay for years and must give it a visit.

“Broadchurch has been very good for the Dorset area.”

John May, of the westbay.co.uk tourism website, said visitors were still pouring into the area with many standing on the clifftop where Danny is shown at the start of the show as well as visiting the beach where his body was found.

Mr May added: “Broadchurch has to be good for West Bay.

“I would think certainly for this year it looks promising. At the moment it is looking good.”

Harbour News was used as the location for the shop in Broad-church run by Jack Marshall and has become a focus of attention as people look for the new Broad-church related poster each week.

Owner Richard Attrill and assistant Steve Travers have played along by putting posters in the window.

Steve said: “A lot of people are coming in and asking us who did it.”

The local tourism industry has also built social media campaigns to reach potential visitors all over the world and are reporting a surge of interest from people desperate to visit the stunning coastal locations featured in the show.

Final episode 'an emotional rollercoaster'

Screenwriter Chris Chibnall based the Broadchurch Echo on the Dorset Echo's sister paper the Bridport News. He was working closely with the title as the drama unfolded and wrote a first person piece for them which is reproduced here...
 

AFTER the recent showing of The Shining at Burton Cliff Hotel, I walked back down into Burton Bradstock with friends and phoned Pat’s Cabs (we’d had a couple of barman Lloyd’s Shining-themed cocktails).

The ever-friendly Stan answered and said, “Well, I’ll try and get someone out there quickly, Chris – just tell me one thing. Who did it?”

It’s the phrase I’ve heard most these last few weeks: “Who did it?”, accompanied by “No, don’t tell me!” and usually followed by “It’s driving me mad!”.

Very few people are privy to the ending.

I’ve been offered bribes, threatened with headlocks, and been invited to the pub with the express intent of getting me drunk and hoping I’ll blab what happens.

For people to be so interested in a story I made up in my back garden in Bridport is thrilling and, ssh, a little bewildering.

It’s come as a lovely surprise to the whole Broadchurch team (and it really is a team effort, this show). We hoped people would watch it.

We never expected it would capture people’s imaginations in this way.

The production’s trump card is clearly the extraordinary Jurassic Coast. I hope we’ve captured the beauty, magic and mystery of the Dorset landscape.

I wanted to thank everyone who supported Broadchurch as it filmed last summer. Whoever arranged for the sunshine (so rare last year) during our first week of West Bay filming, I’m very grateful.

We shut roads, put tape across the beach, blocked alleys and buildings, all in service of this story.

People responded with patience, good humour and support. I hope we did a little bit to ease a difficult economic time for the area.

The response has been equally wonderful as the show has transmitted: I’ve loved watching the posters change in the shop windows in West Bay each week.

Now there’s an ending coming. You will get answers. It may or may not be the ending you expect. But it’s the one I had in mind from the start, and clues have been scattered throughout.

The final episode is, as you would probably expect, an emotional rollercoaster. My advice: bring tissues. Hold a loved one close, and watch right to the end.

Broadchurch has been quite a ride. Thank you to everyone here for being such a vital part of it.