Olivia Colman appeared on the Graham Norton Show on BBC Radio 2 this morning to chat about the new ITV drama Broadchurch.
Olivia repeated writer Chris Chibnall's description of the drama and said that it was going to be the sort of story that you hear every now and again that breaks everyone's hearts. Broadchurch is set in a small community where everyone knows everybody else and her character is in the difficult position of knowing the victim very well. “She wanted to be in the police force to serve her community and then this awful thing happens – then you suddenly wish you didn't have this job,” she said.
She found the experience of filming traumatic scenes very cathartic and offset the cast were able to have a giggle as they had cried all their tears during filming.
Olivia talked about the starry cast (“It’s a bit much…You could do a drinking game, everytime you see a famous face”), and described David Tennant as the nicest man in the world, and she and host Graham mused on David’s ability to be likeable even when he is playing unlikeable. “He’s playing a recalcitrant, slightly socially awkward guy, with a past, but you sort of love him”. They also all wanted to get straight back into doing something lighter straight afterwards “While we were filming, Jodie and I and Andrew and David and I were all crying and saying ‘I want to do a musical!’” she joked, “But it is lovely to always try and do something different, that’s the ideal”.
She also revealed her on set injury when Jodie Whittaker managed to dislocate her knee during a struggle on the beach in early scenes. She said it was painful, but “luckily popped out and popped straight back in again”.
Broadchurch stars Olivia Colman and David Tennant as two police officers attemting to find the killer of a yound boy in a small seaside community. Andrew Buchan, Jodie Whittaker, Pauline Quirke and Arthur Darvill also star. The eight part series begins on ITV at 9pm on Monday 4th March.
