If Emmerdale wasn’t heart wrenching enough last night, viewers were in for more telly anguish when they tuned in to watch gripping thriller Broadchurch
In last night’s tense instalment, viewers saw one of its longest running characters appear to take his ownlife.
In shocking scenes at the end of the episode, Mark Latimer, whose son was murdered in series one, looked as though he had drowned himself after he could no longer cope with the grief of losing his child.
Earlier, Mark, still unable to deal with the fact that his son’s killer Joe Miller had been found not guilty in season two, decided to go to Liverpool and confront him.
But when they came face to face, Joe went on to describe what really happened the night Danny was killed.
Joe said to Mark: “I’m only here because I’m not brave enough to kill myself. I should have done that a long time ago.”
A broken Mark replied: “I can’t live with what you’ve done to us but I’m not strong enough to make you pay, it’s pathetic,” he sighed. “What do I do now?”
Unable to enact the revenge he had so wanted to he instead drove to the coast and appeared to throw himself into the sea.
The final scenes came as a shock for viewers, who took to social media to express their shock and grief.
“Trish’s story may be what’s driving series 3 but Danny’s story is where the heart is at I’m in tears at tonight’s episode #Broadchurch…
“Correction, I am sobbing #Broadchurch.”
Another fan was devastated that the character had decided to kill himself: “#broadchurch mark cant die :(.”
Meanwhile, another viewer questioned what was unfolding: “So did Mark just kill himself?? That’s a thing right😭😭 That just happened??? #Broadchurch.”
Other fans, who really took the drama to heart, were too emotional to write a message and could only post crying emojis online.
Meanwhile elsewhere in the who-raped-Trish storyline, her boss Ed, played by Lenny Henry was taken in for questioning by Detectives Hardy (David Tennant) and Miller (Olivia Colman).
Clearly forgetting this was merely a drama and that Lenny was PLAYING A ROLE many viewers said they were furious to see the TV veteran in handcuffs.
“Sir Lenny wouldn’t do a thing like that!!” moaned one telly fan, while another added: “They can’t make Lenny Henry the Rapist!!”
Another shocked viewer said: “If they make Lenny Henry a rapist then I’m gonna be so p**sed at [write Chris] Chibnall istg #broadchurch.”
However, canny viewers pointed out that his arrest so early into the series probably meant that he wasn’t actually the culprit, with one fan writing, “If he’s been arrested this early, it pretty much means he’s not the guy that did it!
Meanwhile, some armchair detectives did begin to wonder by the end of the episode if Mark might actually be Trish’s rapist and that his suicide a way of cleansing his soul.
We’ll have to see what the writer has in store for us.