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Broadchurch creator uses Dorset for first novel

Steve Harris
BBC Radio Solent
Nathan Briant
BBC News
BBC Chris Chibnall is standing and looking at the camera on the beach, with cliffs to his left and a calm sea to his right. He is wearing glasses and has short hair and has a small microphone attached to a dark jumper, which he is wearing underneath a black North Face coat.BBC
Chris Chibnall was interviewed by the BBC at West Bay

The first episode of Chris Chibnall's Broadchurch was first shown to Dorset residents at Bridport Arts Centre before it aired on ITV in 2013.

"I thought: 'oh, if everybody hates this I am going to get driven out of town and I really like living here.' Luckily, that didn't come to be," he said.

Three series later and having been Doctor Who's showrunner between 2017 and 2022, Chibnall has used an imagined Dorset as the backdrop for his debut novel, Death at the White Hart.

"A landlord is discovered murdered, tied to a chair in the middle of the A35 at 02:00 and he's got deer antlers strapped to his head. The question is who did it and why":[]}