''The Coroner'' is a BBC Birmingham drama series starring

Claire Goose Claire Goose is a Scottish actress who first gained attention playing Tina Seabrook on the long-running BBC One medical drama '' Casualty'' (1997–2000). Her other roles include DS "Mel" Silver in '' Waking the Dead'' (2000–2007), Insp. ...

as Jane Kennedy, a

coroner A coroner is a government or judicial official who is empowered to conduct or order an inquest into the manner or cause of death. The official may also investigate or confirm the identity of an unknown person who has been found dead within th ...

based in a fictional

South Devon South Devon is the southern part of Devon, England. Because Devon has its major population centres on its two coasts, the county is divided informally into North Devon and South Devon.For exampleNorth DevonanSouth Devonnews sites. In a narrower s ...

coastal town.

Matt Bardock Matthew Arthur Bardock (born 1969) is an English actor. He is best known for playing Jeff Collier in '' Casualty'', DS Clive Barnard in '' A Touch of Frost'', DS Davey Higgins in '' The Coroner'', Albie in '' The Lakes'', Mark Craig in ''New Bloo ...

stars as Detective Sergeant Davey Higgins. On 2 March 2017, the BBC announced that the series had been cancelled after two series.

Synopsis

Jane Kennedy returns to Lighthaven as the local

. She works with Davey Higgins, a Detective Sergeant in the South Dart police; they were childhood sweethearts until he broke her heart. They investigate any sudden, violent or unexplained deaths in the

South Hams South Hams is a non-metropolitan district, local government district on the south coast of Devon, England. Its council is based in the town of Totnes, although the largest town is Ivybridge. The district also contains the towns of Dartmouth, ...

district of South Devon. Also featuring are Beth, Kennedy's 15-year-old daughter; Judith, Kennedy's mother; Judith's boyfriend, Mick Sturrock; and Clint Holman, Coroner's Officer.

Cast

as Jane Kennedy, Coroner *

as Davey Higgins, Detective Sergeant * Beatie Edney as Judith Kennedy, Jane's mother * Ivan Kaye as Mick Sturrock, landlord of ''The Black Dog'' * Oliver Gomm as Clint Holman, Coroner’s Officer * Grace Hogg-Robinson as Beth Kennedy, Jane's daughter

Development

Sally Abbott created ''The Coroner'' from an idea by Will Trotter, executive producer and head of BBC Drama Birmingham, about a woman coroner aged about 40 and in a location such as the

Cotswolds The Cotswolds ( ) is a region of central South West England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper River Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and the Vale of Evesham. The area is defined by the bedroc ...

or Devon. The series would have self-contained stories with drama and humour; a formula successfully used in ''

Father Brown Father Brown is a fictional Roman Catholic priest and amateur detective. He is featured in 53 short stories by English author G. K. Chesterton, published between 1910 and 1936. Father Brown solves mysteries and crimes using his intuition and ...

'' from the same production team. The characters, Jane and Davey, were based on

Katharine Hepburn Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress whose Katharine Hepburn on screen and stage, career as a Golden Age of Hollywood, Hollywood leading lady spanned six decades. She was known for her headstrong ...

and

Spencer Tracy Spencer Bonaventure Tracy (April 5, 1900 – June 10, 1967) was an American actor. He was known for his natural performing style and versatility. One of the major stars of Classical Hollywood cinema, Hollywood's Golden Age, Tracy was the ...

in '' Adam's Rib'' with the unresolved sexual tension between them. Abbott wrote the Davey character with Matt Bardock in mind. She created four other characters to complete the cast. According to the BBC, the series is not inspired by M R Hall's "Jenny Cooper" novels, including '' The Coroner''. Hall stated he was "unhappy" about the "enormous similarities", but the BBC say any resemblance with his booksalso about an unusually pro-active, Land Rover driving, forty-something female solicitor who after a failed relationship returns to the

West Country The West Country is a loosely defined area within southwest England, usually taken to include the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset and Bristol, with some considering it to extend to all or parts of Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and ...

(albeit in different areas) to take up the post of coronerare purely coincidental. The novels would later be made into a Canadian television series.

Production

The production office was located at Dartington where some interior scenes were filmed. Filming began in mid-April 2015 for 15 weeks. The episodes were divided into blocks of two with the same director, assistant director, and director of photography. Locations included

Hope Cove Hope Cove is a small seaside village within the civil parish of South Huish in South Hams district, Devon, England. It is located west of Salcombe and south west of Kingsbridge. It has two beaches, and is sheltered by the headland of Bolt Tai ...

, Dartmouth,

Torquay Torquay ( ) is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies south of the county town of Exeter and east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paignt ...

, and Broadsands Beach,

Paignton Paignton ( ) is a seaside town on the coast of Tor Bay in Devon, England. Together with Torquay and Brixham it forms the unitary authority, borough of Torbay which was created in 1968. The Torbay area is a holiday destination known as the Engli ...

. The Mansion, now a community building, in

Totnes Totnes ( or ) is a market town and civil parish at the head of the estuary of the River Dart in Devon, England, within the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is about west of Paignton, about west-southwest of Torquay and ab ...

was used as the Coroner's Court. A brass plate was attached to the brickwork. The exterior and interior of Oldway Mansion is used as Lighthaven's town hall. The Old

Customs House A custom house or customs house was traditionally a building housing the offices for a jurisdictional government whose officials oversaw the functions associated with importing and exporting goods into and out of a country, such as collecting ...

in Bayard's Cove, Dartmouth is the location of the Coroners office. The set for The Black Dog Inn is the derelict Crooked Spaniards Inn, Cargreen,

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

. The tower at Gribben Head, Cornwall featured in the first episode. The Old Custom House Bayards Cove Dartmouth Devon.JPG, The Old Custom House, Bayards Cove File:The Crooked Spaniards public house, Cargreen.jpg, The derelict Crooked Spaniards File:Gribbin Tower - geograph.org.uk - 1239648.jpg, Gribben Tower, Gribben Head

Episodes

Series 1 (2015)

Series 2 (2016)

DVD

Both series are available on DVD in the UK. They have also been released in Germany and Australia. All of these releases are PAL format. NTSC format DVDs will be released in the USA in 2018. Although being one of the first BBC drama series to be shot in 4K resolution, there have been no blu-rays released in either 4K or high definition in any region to date.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Coroner, The 2015 British television series debuts 2016 British television series endings 2010s British crime drama television series 2010s British legal television series BBC crime television shows BBC high definition shows BBC television dramas British detective television series British English-language television shows Television shows about death Television shows set in Devon BBC daytime television series