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Broadchurch is great... as long as they keep their mouths shut: CHRISTOPHER STEVENS reviews last night's TV

By Christopher Stevens for the Daily Mail

Published: 19:53 EST, 9 February 2015 | Updated: 06:00 EST, 10 February 2015

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Broadchurch

Rating:

Better Call Saul

Rating:

We’ve waited long enough and, finally, Ellie lost her temper in Broadchurch (ITV). Olivia Colman’s put-upon policewoman has been everybody’s punchbag for weeks. She couldn’t keep being such an infuriating saint for ever.

‘Have a little self control!’ she snapped at self-pitying Claire (Eve Myles), who was bewailing the fact that she’s overcome with lust and wobbly knees every time she sees her creepy ex-husband. Claire gaped in surprise at her, like a cow that has walked into an electric fence.

But that was nothing compared with the wigging Ellie gave her selfish, lying son Tom, in the crowded foyer of the crown court. ‘Sit down! Sit down!’ she yelled in his face, and suddenly cocky Tom was four years old again. ‘I hope you’re ashamed! I am your mother, do you understand?’

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Ellie (played by Olivia Colman) finally lost her temper in Broadchurch, but unfortunately did not take her anger out on David Tennant for his mumbling

Tennant seems to be mumbling his lines in Broadchurch

Olivia Colman in a paddy makes German Chancellor Angela Merkel look positively mumsy. In fact, the solution to the Ukraine crisis could be to have Olivia fly to Moscow and give President Putin a talking to. He’d soon behave.

It’s just a shame she hasn’t boxed David Tennant’s ears and told him to stop mumbling. His Gaelic slurring is now beyond comprehension — he sounds like Alex Salmond in the dentist’s chair with his mouth numb from anaesthetic.

Broadchurch is at its best when no one says anything. The acting is sometimes superb and the pictures are glorious cascades of colour. DI Hardy’s blue harbourside chalet and the brick-built shoeboxes on the Sandbrook housing estate have a woozily dreamlike quality as the camera swoops past them.

But as soon as characters start talking, we wake up from the dream — and like all dreams, it looks pretty silly. Claire, who has been living in a DIY witness protection scheme to hide her from her hubbie, suddenly decided to go house-hunting with him.

Meanwhile, the trial of Ellie’s husband, Joe, for murder has become so stupid that explaining it simply makes things worse: Joe’s lawyers were trying to get the prosecution thrown out of court because the victim’s father admitted he had once looked at the defendant in his cell.

RED-HOT LOVER OF THE WEEK

Food tastes better after a painful experience, claimed chef Heston Blumenthal on Recipe For Romance (C4), so he devised a chocolate-coated strawberry with a scorching sliver of chili pepper hidden inside.

You wouldn’t want a box of those for Valentine’s Day.

Read that sentence as often as you like, it makes no sense. But Meera Syal, as the judge, gave it close consideration — in front of a packed public bench, while the defendant in his glass cage gawped at her.

To see how absorbing a well-crafted court scene can be, you had to turn to a show that isn’t, strictly speaking, on TV. Better Call Saul (Netflix) is the sister production to Breaking Bad, which was the best drama to come out of America in the past decade.

Netflix, an online service that lets internet users watch TV on their laptops and phones, has enjoyed colossal success by syndicating the whole of Breaking Bad. However, that series, about a chemistry teacher turned drug baron, ended in 2013 — subscribers can still view all the episodes, but there won’t be any new ones.

Instead, Netflix has commissioned a new show, a prequel to Breaking Bad, featuring one of its best characters... a slippery, ambulance-chasing lawyer called Saul Goodman.

Bob Odenkirk plays Saul back when he was still a struggling criminal lawyer named Jimmy McGill

Exciting new trailer for AMC's new series - Better Call Saul

We’ve seen original programmes appear online before: the outstanding House Of Cards, with Kevin Spacey, won three Emmys in 2013. But usually Netflix uploads a whole series in one go, for binge-watching marathons.

Better Call Saul is different — it’s appearing at the rate of one episode a week, like a conventional TV serial. The first went online at 7am yesterday.

Bob Odenkirk plays Saul back when he was still a struggling criminal lawyer named Jimmy McGill. You don’t have to know anything about Breaking Bad to enjoy this show, though if you do, there are plenty of in-jokes to relish.

Jimmy’s first scene has him wrapping a jury around his fingers as he joshes, flirts and pleads with them. He’s trying to get three 19-year-old ‘knuckleheads’ off a charge that at first seems so trivial, and then becomes so outrageous, that you won’t know whether you dare laugh.

It’s brilliantly written. Shows like Better Call Saul guarantee an exciting future for television... even if it’s barely TV any more.