6.6 /10 1 Votes
Created by Sally Abbott Original language(s) English No. of episodes 20 (list of episodes) Final episode date 2 December 2016 Genre Drama | 6.5/10 IMDb Country of origin United Kingdom No. of series 2 First episode date 16 November 2015 Network BBC One Composer Debbie Wiseman | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Starring Claire Goose
Matt Bardock Similar Father Brown, Silent Witness, Death in Paradise, DCI Banks, The Doctor Blake Mysteries | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Claire goose on new series the coroner lorraine
The Coroner is a BBC Birmingham daytime drama series of 20 episodes starring Claire Goose as Jane Kennedy, a coroner based in a fictional South Devon coastal town. Matt Bardock stars as Detective Sergeant Davey Higgins.
Contents
The BBC announced on 2 March 2017 that there would be no further series.
Synopsis
Jane Kennedy returns to Lighthaven as the local coroner. She works with Davey Higgins, a Detective Sergeant in the South Dart police; they were childhood sweethearts and he broke her heart. They investigate any sudden, violent or unexplained deaths in the South Hams district of South Devon.
Also featuring: Beth, Kennedy's 15-year-old daughter; Judith, Kennedy's mother; Judith's boyfriend, Mick Sturrock; Clint Holman, Coroner's Officer.
Cast
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 or Devon. The series would have self-contained stories with drama and humour; a formula successfully used in Father Brown from the same production team. The characters, Jane and Davey, were based on Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracey in "Adams 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.
Production
According to the BBC, the series is not based on, or inspired by, M R Hall's best-selling books including The Coroner. Hall stated he was "unhappy" about the "enormous similarities", but the BBC say any resemblance with his books – also about an unusually pro-active, Land Rover driving, forty-something female solicitor who after a failed relationship returns to the West Country to take up the post of coroner – are purely coincidental.
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 Dartmouth, Torquay, and Broadsands Beach, Paignton. The Mansion, now a community building, in Totnes was used as the Coroners 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 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. The tower at Gribben Head, Cornwall featured in the first episode.
Cancellation
The BBC announced on 2 March 2017 that there would be no further series. Shortly after the cancellation was announced, an online petition was started to reverse it which received media attention.
DVD
Dazzler Media published the complete first series in February 2016 and the second series in January 2017.