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David Tennant and Olivia Colman's brilliant Broadchurch premiered on ITV last night (March 4) amid a flurry of hype and lofty comparisons with the Godfather of Nordic Noir, The Killing.

Thankfully, the opening episode more than matched the hype, managing to create a gripping whodunnit balanced alongside an emotionally powerful tale of parental grief. There are still eight episodes to go and a crime drama can be made or broken by its resolutions, but in my opinion this first hour was ITV's best piece of drama since 2011's Appropriate Adult. I'm utterly hooked.

Every week, I'll be collecting up the clues and examining the latest twists from the seaside town of Broadchurch to discover the culprit behind the murder of 11-year-old Danny Latimer. In last night's opening instalment, Danny was found on the beach and his death is now being investigated by Di Alec Hardy (Tennant) and DS Ellie Miller (Colman).

Danny was strangled,...

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

In keeping with Big Finish’s addition of Mary Shelly (Julie Cox) to the 8th Doctor’s (Paul McGann) Tardis, we have something of a horror story, involving witches, religious zealotry and murder. So, basically a Tuesday for the Tardis crew.

Our story begins with Mary saving the lives of two teenage twins from a strange, monstrous creature living inside a recently unsealed well. The twins, Finicia (Alix Wilton Regan) and Lucien (Kevin Trainor) wind up inside the Tardis, and then the Tardis winds up in 17th century England. They’re still all in the same village, but a different time, and yet a place where the twins are recognized.

It turns out they’ve arrived during a witch scare, and a local woman, Agnes (Serena Evans), is about to be burned for witchcraft. She’s surprisingly sanguine about her upcoming fate, but before the Doctor...

There.s a serpent in the grassy mind of Tegan and the Doctor has to save his companion before it.s too late. Can he do it? Can the BBC pull off the ambitious script? Kinda, um kind of. The Tardis visits the planet Deva Loka, where the ill Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) remains inside, while the Doctor (Peter Davison), Tegan (Janet Fielding) and Adric (Matthew Waterhouse) explore. Tegan falls asleep under some wind chimes and becomes possessed by an evil force, the Mara. Also on Deva Loka is a survey team assessing the planet for colonization, but three of their number has disappeared and the remainder . leader Sanders (Richard Todd), his paranoid deputy Hindle (Simon Rouse) and the...

ITV has confirmed that it will broadcast a documentary looking back at The Bill on the night the police drama comes to an end. The long-running show was axed in March after a fall in ratings following a timeslot change and last year's revamp. The Sun Hill-based drama's final episode, titled 'Respect', will air at the end of month and will be followed by one-hour special Farewell The Bill. The special promises to take a look back at the show's history and go behind the scenes as the cast and crew film the final two-parter. Castmembers including Alex Walkinshaw (Smithy), Simon Rouse (Spt Jack Meadows) and Chris Simmons (DC Mickey Webb) will "talk exclusively" about their time on the show. (more)...

ITV has confirmed that it is dropping police drama The Bill after 27 years on air. According to The Guardian, the decision comes after last year's revamp and move to a 9pm slot failed to alter sliding ratings. The show, which is based in fictional station Sun Hill, switched from two weekly shows at 8pm to a single 9pm episode last July. It was the first time that the programme had aired in a post-watershed slot, which encouraged "darker, grittier and more hard-hitting" storylines. However, ratings fell to an average of 3.5 million, a significant drop from the 7 million who tuned in in 2002. It currently employs 19 main cast members, including Simon Rouse (Di Jack Meadows), Alex Walkinshaw (Inspector Dale 'Smithy' Smith) and DS Stevie Moss (Lucy Speed). The broadcaster claimed that the decision (more)...

The Bill star Simon Rouse has claimed that the show does not need to compete with Us crime drama CSI. Speaking to What's On TV, Rouse - Jack Meadows on the ITV1 cop drama - said that The Bill's new post-watershed timeslot does not mean that the two programmes are now in competition. "Why do we want to compete with them? I love American shows but they are very different people, (more)...

ITV police drama The Bill is to join forces with its German cop show counterpart Soko Leipzig to mark the show's 25th anniversary. The shows' production houses - talkbackTHAMES and Ufa Fernsehproduktion - will co-produce the venture, creating footage for their respective programmes, while at the same time utilising characters from both. The storyline begins when an 18-year-old German girl called Charlotte (Anna-Maria Mühe) is kidnapped on British soil. Dci Jack Meadows (Simon Rouse) heads up the manhunt with his German equivalent - and godfather of the kidnap victim - Detective Chief Superintendent Hajo Trautzschke (Andreas Schmidt-Schaller). Sun Hill detectives DC Terry Perkins (Bruce Byron), DC Mickey Webb (Chris Simmons) and DC Kezia Walker (Cat Simmons) will also feature in the cross-border filming. The Bill's executive producer (more)...