Nigel Carter

Nigel works alongside Mark Latimer in the family plumbing business, a cheerful, easily led local lad who's spent his whole life in Broadchurch. He's loyal to Mark almost to a fault, quick with a joke, slower to think things through, and utterly unprepared for the town's murder investigation to start pointing anywhere near him.

Joe Sims plays him as guileless rather than stupid, which matters once suspicion lands on Nigel simply because he's awkward and close to the Latimers. The part is a quiet study in how a small town chews up its more ordinary members when it goes looking for someone to blame, and Sims makes his confusion and hurt feel entirely real.