Rev. Paul Coates

Paul Coates is the vicar of Broadchurch, a small church with a shrinking congregation, called to the scene when a boy's body is found on the beach. He offers comfort to a shattered family and town, gently, insistently, even as many around him have stopped listening to what he's selling.

Darvill plays him without a trace of smugness, which is the trick — a man of faith in a very faithless crime drama, trying to be useful in a situation that resists comfort. The show could easily have made him a punchline or a suspect; instead he's just decent, awkwardly, and that becomes quietly moving.