D.I. Alec Hardy

A detective newly transferred to the small coastal town of Broadchurch, Hardy arrives trailing a reputation nobody will explain and a cough he won't discuss. He's blunt to the point of rudeness, impatient with local sentiment, and visibly unwell — a man who wanted a quiet posting and got a murder instead.

Tennant strips away every trace of his usual warmth to play someone closed-off and prickly, letting silences and a flat Scottish burr do the work his face won't. The mystery of what happened before he arrived hangs over every scene without ever excusing his behaviour, which is what makes him compelling rather than just difficult.