From daring Doctor Who to whodunit for pioneer of screen

BROADCHURCH creator Chris Chibnall has written a thriller with a great British institution struggling to survive at its core the traditional country pub.

- By Jon Coates

His debut novel, Death At The White Hart, which was published on Thursday and is being adapted into an ITV drama, was inspired by his life-long love of Agatha Christie's classic golden-age murder mysteries.

But in coming up with a modern take on this he honed in on how pubs are a portal into the struggles facing individuals and communities.

"The idea of the pub was at the heart of the idea for the novel in that they are dying," Chris says. "That the pub is almost a metaphor for the country is really interesting to me.

"Pubs are also where people spill all their secrets and are off their guard. They are the perfect crucible for a murder."

The acclaimed screenwriter, 55, is best known for creating hit ITV crime drama Broadchurch, which starred Olivia Colman and David Tennant, and was filmed in West Bay, just a mile from his home in Bridport, Dorset.

And just as Broadchurch was an amalgamation of several places in Dorset, so is Fleetcombe, the fictional village in his novel.

Chris's passion for his book is immediate to see as we discuss it.

He says: "It's a murder mystery set in Dorset in the present day, so it's very much in the now. It's a story of a man's body found at 2am on a misty stretch of the A35 tied to a chair in the middle of the road with deer antlers attached to his head.

"It's revealed the victim is the pub landlord of the local village, Fleetcombe, and there are a number of suspects after a big night in the pub."

The writer, who is credited with reviving the fortunes of classic science-fiction drama Doctor Who after casting Jodie Whittaker as the first female Time Lord while its showrunner, says the setting of his first novel was as important as the story itself.

He adds: "I wanted to explore that quintessential English village that we all know, where you go to the pub for lunch after having a walk.