The Coroner (TV series)

The Coroner
First episode titlecard
Genre	Drama
Created by	Sally Abbott
Starring	Claire Goose Matt Bardock
Composer(s)	Debbie Wiseman
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	2
No. of episodes	20 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Will Trotter
Producer(s)	Sandra McIver
Cinematography	Richard Mahoney Chris Preston Phil Winn
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 take up the post of Coroner in the small South Devon seaside town of Lighthaven she left as a teenager. She finds herself working with Davey Higgins, the boy who broke her heart and is now the local Detective Sergeant for the South Dart Police. 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 in the Coroners Office. 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 mother's home. She is good at her job and at running the home, but she 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 Lighthaven. 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. She works for him as a barmaid in "The Black Dog".

Mick Sturrock (Ivan Kaye) is the 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 a keen surfer. He is the Coroner’s Officer who normally carries out the investigations but has an allergy to dead bodies, and Jane with her trust issues which makes her insist on leading the investigations.

Beth Kennedy (Grace Hogg-Robinson) is Jane's 15-year-old daughter, a "goth," obsessed with death. Like her mother, Jane, she has a 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]

• 

  The Old Custom House, Bayards Cove, Dartmouth

• 

  The derelict Crooked Spaniards public house Cargreen, Cornwall

• 

  Gribbin Tower, Gribbins Head, Cornwall

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 body washes up on shore - the third in a month, Jane is convinced it is a botched sea burial, but Davey believes it is a local man who was lost at sea during the last fortnight. Each is determined to prove the other wrong, and, as various facts come to light, including 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"	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, herself, 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
At the reopening of his first fish restaurant, Peter Bradshaw 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, and pink diamonds they owned are missing. A male lover of Bradshaw's surfaces, as well as an old army colleague, who has an alibi. Jane's mother Judith, while eating an ice cream, has 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 has 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 that Prowse has been poisoned, and that the coins are fake, which has been 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. Igby is suspected at first of being one of the many looters salvaging the cargo, and the investigation leads to his girlfriend, his probation officer, and his girlfriend's father, (who was also his employer in the docks). Jane and Davey have to break a wall of silence to uncover the truth, and are not helped by Judith and Mick, who have also 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 having buried her seven months ago, her body having been discovered five months after she had disappeared overboard from her father's boat. Suffering amnesia, she begins to remember where she had been held and the evidence implicates her godfather, who is subsequently murdered, and Leah's father is arrested. Jane becomes involved in discovering who was the girl buried in Leah's 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. His dysfunctional family includes: his son, his daughter, the son's teenage daughter, and a writer employed to write the history of a valuable violin belonging to Napoleon. The violin is missing and the investigation reveals: that the father suffered from depression; that the son is suffering from early-onset Parkinson's disease; that the daughter is suffering from agoraphobia; that the granddaughter (the son's teenage daughter), is of a morose nature, seemingly because she had not seen her own mother who had disappeared when the girl was four years old; and that the writer has 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 which has 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 the son 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 the stomach cut open. Jane and Davey question the festival organisers, who paid for her air ticket from Cuba. Meanwhile, Jane becomes friendly with an Egyptian doctor, who is practicing illegally, whilst seeking asylum in the UK. Davey arrests the dead girl's brother when he discovers his name differs from hers.

Series 2 (2016)

No. overall	No. in series	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date
11	1	"The Drop Zone"	Piotr Szkopiak	Sally Abbott	21 November 2016
The chief instructor, Rafe, of a sky diving school "The Drop Zone" falls to his death when his main and reserve parachute fail to open. The parachutes having being tampered with leads to suspicion of murder by one of his colleagues and when Jane receives a medical report that he had a terminal illness suicide becomes another possibility. Rafe's personal relationships with his wife and colleagues have to be unravelled to solve the death. Beth defies her mother by using an isolated beach riddled with quicksand.
12	2	"Perfectly Formed"	Matt Carter	Mark Hiser and Bridget Colgan	22 November 2016
The remains of a new born baby wrapped in 1970's newspaper is found in a cottage condemned by coastal erosion. A nearby closed children's home, Greyvale, and interviewing the uncooperative former residents and staff lead Jane and Davey to three sisters; one of whom, Lisa Millar is missing. Lee Millar, the brother, another resident of the home, visiting from America, who knows more than he is admitting and has tried to protect his sisters lead Jane to mistakenly suspect incest.
13	3	"Those in Peril"	Niall Fraser	David Bowker	23 November 2016
The Falmouth coastguard calls out the Angel Cove lifeboat to investigate a red flare one mile west of Seal Island. Two crew, the only women crew members one of whom is the coxswain are swept overboard, and only the coxswain survives. Sabotage to the victims life jacket and the subsequent murder of another crew member leads Davey and Jane to investigate the rest of the crew. Mick, a former crew member, is attacked pointing to a previous rescue of a man that later killed.
14	4	"The Beast of Lighthaven"	Matt Carter	Kit Lambert	24 November 2016
Beth camping, with friends, overnight on the moors is frightened by animal noises and discovers a savaged sheep. Posting a picture on social media arouses the interest of local journalist Ben Fairhead of the Lighthaven Star. Fairhead believes the picture will convince the locals and police of his belief a big cat is loose on the moors. When he turns up mauled to death on the moors Jane and Davey delve into his past and the murder of his mother 15 years previously by his father who was known as the Beast of Lighthaven.
15	5	"The Captain's Pipe"	Ian Barber	Kit Lambert	25 November 2016
Tam Bryant the owner of The Captain's Pipe public house and a bitter rival of Mick' is found dead beneath a rock fall at an inaccessible cove. Davey arrests Mick as the evidence points to his involvement in the death. Mick implores Jane to prove his innocence but his reluctance to cooperate hinders the investigation. When a smugglers tunnel is discovered in the shape of a pipe under the pub and evidence of an explosion leads to a builder and his wife, renovating the pub, with past relationships with Tam and Mick.
16	6	"Life"	Piotr Szkopiak	Jon Sen	28 November 2016
A false tip off about the location of a missing girl's body and the death in prison of an inmate from a drug overdose brings Jayne and Davey together investigating the dead man and his cell mate, Sidney Sutton awaiting appeal, convicted of the child killing of the missing girl. A prisoner and prison guard, Ben Arnold, go missing and Sutton's appeal is successful. Ben Arnold kidnaps Beth and takes her to a well where the missing girl is buried.
17	7	"Perfect Pair"	Piotr Szkopiak	Ann Marie Di Mambro	29 November 2016
A window cleaner found dead next to a car he does not own turns out to have multiple identities and had been using a dating agency "Perfect Pair". The owner of the car, prominent businessman Jason Daniels, claims his car had been stolen despite the window cleaner using the car on numerous occasions. Jane and Davey's investigation reveal they led a dual life using the dating website to meet women providing multiple suspects and motives to murder either one.
18	8	"The Foxby Affair"	Niall Fraser	Kit Lambert	30 November 2016
A newspaper official notice of Oliver Foxby applying to the court to issue a death certificate for his brother Jerry who disappeared 20 years earlier after murdering a call-girl whose body had never been found. Jane is called by an unwell woman claiming to have information who is subsequently murdered. Identification of the woman as the call-girl with thousand of pounds in a safe deposit box lead to Davey arresting Oliver for murder and the possibility that Jerry had been murdered as well.
19	9	"Pieces of Eight"	Piotr Szkopiak	Matthew Cooke and Vincent Lund	1 December 2016
Davey is dealing with the theft of a cash van by robbers dressed as pirates during the Lighthaven pirate festival while Jane is dealing with a body washed up on the beach. A tattoo on the dead man identifies him as part of a fisherman's dart's team Mick belongs to and when the wife misidentifies the dead man as her husband; Davey and Jane believe the two events are linked; together with a closed fish market, where the cash van is found and the dart's team worked, now owned by cash strapped businessman.
20	10	"Crash"	Ian Barber	Sally Abbott	2 December 2016
17 year old Ellie Pearson dies in a car accident.The post mortem reveals her body had been moved from the car which killed her and evidence of the driver removed. The close ties of Ellie's mother and aunt, Cath, who's husband is a policeman, who all went to the same school as Jane and Davey; their son who's going to university, Beth's best friend, Megan, who fell out with Ellie, over a boy and a secret boyfriend all confuse the investigation. Jane and Davey realise a vindictive Kath broke up their childhood romance at the school leaving dance leading both to marry the wrong person.

All Episodes of Series Two can currently be viewed via BBC iPlayer ^[14] Additional resources ^[15]

References

1. "The Coroner". BBC. Retrieved 11 January 2016.
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.
3. Lee, Ben (17 April 2015). "Claire Price and Casualty's Matt Bardock for BBC One's The Coroner". Digital Spy. Retrieved 11 January 2016.
4. HERomPEllis (9 November 2015). "BBC drama filmed in South Devon set to air next week". Torquay Herald Express. Retrieved 11 January 2016.
5. "Claire Goose and Matt Bardock preview 'brutal, fantastical' new daytime drama, The Coroner". What's on TV. 11 November 2015. Retrieved 11 January 2016.
6. "BBC media centre". Retrieved 12 November 2015.
7. Joseph, Claudia; Foster, Patrick (19 November 2015). "BBC accused of 'misappropriating' idea for new coroner drama". The Daily Telegraph.
8. "Bone of contention". Law Society Gazette. 20 November 2015.
9. Abbott, Sally. "BBC blog". writers Room. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
10. O'Reagan, Mike. "Line producer". By The Dart. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
11. "Herald Express". Retrieved 11 November 2015.
12. BBC website 7th character http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p037zsl4 Retrieved 15 November 2015
13. Mikes, CG. "Cornish Guardian". Cornish Guardian.
14. "The Coroner - Available now - BBC One". BBC. Retrieved 2016-11-23.
15. "Series 2, The Coroner - Episode guide - BBC One". BBC. Retrieved 2016-11-23.

External links