Broadchurch

David Tennant confirmed as Genius Game host after hints from brainteaser

David Tennant stands in a room holding a cube

The show will select players based on both their brains and social intelligence. Those looking to get ahead in the programme’s all-new game formats will need to use their heads in more ways than one.

As well as mental acuity, contestants will need to use the dark art of manipulation to cheat each other out of the cash prize.

Yesterday, ITV tweeted out a brain teaser hinting that Tennant was the host.

Memorable TV performances of the decade

(credit: BBC/Luke Varley/Two Brothers/AMC/ITV)

Series binging over weekly releases has become the new norm, and brand new, high-quality TV content seems to be in endless supply.

The competition for viewers’ attention has intensified tenfold, and the leading broadcasters have risen to the challenge.

At the beginning of a new decade, we look back at some of the most memorable performances and series of the last ten years.

 

Peaky Blinders and Riviera Cinematographers stress the importance of lighting

Cillian Murphy in Peaky Blinders (Credit: BBC)

Lighting is key to camera work, says cinematographer Laurie Rose. It’s essential to establishing a look or mood for a scene. “The important thing is to tell a story and create mood using light,” he explains. 

Between them Laurie and cinematographer Matt Gray have credits on shows as varied as Peaky BlindersBroadchurch and Riviera

Doctor Who star Jodie Whittaker on her "incredibly emotional" casting

In an interview for BBC 6 Music, the actor spoke of her excitement to take on the role and to work again with Broadchurch creator Chris Chibnall, who is taking over from Steven Moffatt as head writer and executive producer. “I already know how incredible he is,” she said, adding “He’s come from a fan’s point of view, so the direction he’s going to take it is going to be incredible.”

Chris Chibnall: The man who reinvented the cliffhanger

Most people, asked to identify the show that changed the career of Chris Chibnall, would point to his ITV crime trilogy Broadchurch. But, for Chibnall, the show that altered everything was, unusually, a flop: Camelot, his king-and-wizard drama for the US cable network Starz, which struggled to the end of one season in 2011.

Peter Fincham on his independent production company Expectation

Ah, they remember it well. It was the autumn of 2015 and Peter Fincham, ITV’s director of television, and Tim Hincks, President of Endemol Shine Group, were having breakfast together.

At least, that’s how Fincham recalls it. Hincks insists it was a drink after work. That detail doesn’t matter. The news they shared, as Fincham explains, did.

Watch the new Broadchurch trailer

The new trailer shows the duo taking on a fresh crime - a brutal sexual assault at a party, with worries that the attacker will strike again. 

Hardy and Miller will investigate the assault that takes place in Dorset, as well as dealing with the emotional damage it subsequently causes everyone connected with the crime.

Season 3 of Broadchurch will return on Monday 27 February at 9pm on ITV.

ITV's new hitmakers

Kevin Lygo’s new job is possibly the biggest in British television – and certainly the most exposed. ITV’s incoming Director of Television must, together with his freshly minted team of commissioning chiefs, arrest a decline in audience that saw the main channel’s viewing share halve between 2000 and 2015.

Downton Abbey is gone, The X Factor is on the wane, and ITV hasn’t launched a breakout hit since Broadchurch in 2013. The company’s share price, which peaked at over 280p last July, fell close to 200p recently.