The Traders Hotel

You’re invited to dinner. What? Pick a night. In your house, why? Do you know many people here? No. Are you living off hotel food? It’s not a good idea.

As far as casting goes, Broadchurch is up there. An academy award winning actress, two Doctor Whos* and, er, a Bird of a Feather. Unfortunately, beyond that it’s all pretty harrowing stuff. Loss, failure, heart palpitations and child murder. As if being based in the West Country isn’t bleak enough.

As it goes, a great deal of the location action isn’t even shot in Dorset. The Broadchurch high street is actually Hill Road in Clevedon, Somerset. I’m not saying Clevedon is a guaranteed gateway to becoming addicted to heroin and killing your girlfriend, but Sid Vicious is known to have lived there.

The Traders Hotel is an old Lloyds bank in the town (compounding the misery further) and is where Doctor #10 lives in the first series – apparently the tranformation was so convincing, they had locals attempting to try and book tables in the place while filming was underway. Weird.

*Technically, this could be three Doctor Whos, as the series also featured David Bradley, who portrayed the first Doctor in place of departed William Hartnell. Let’s call it two and a half Doctors.