It’s been the biggest Whodunit of the year and on Monday night Joe Miller was revealed as Danny Latimer’s murderer during the final episode of Broadchurch.
Joe Miller was revealed as the killer of Danny Latimer and he confessed to falling for the 11-year-old boy
Detective Sergeant Ellie Miller’s husband made his shocking confession to the murder, which he said was an accident, and claimed that he had been in love with the 11-year-old boy.
During the dramatic hour-long episode of the hit show it was revealed that the father-of-two had been meeting up with Danny in secret, but many questions were left unanswered.
Shortly after the final scenes had aired ITV confirmed that a second series of the show will return to screens next year.
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Joe and Danny had been meeting to ‘hug’ for the past few months, but the father-of-two strenuously denied molesting the young boy, a claim that was backed up the pathologists reports.
With the father-of-two charged with the murder of the young boy the Latimer family could organise a funeral for their son and the final scenes showed the Broadchurch community lighting a fire in his memory.
Mark went to visit Joe in prison to try and get some answers
As the bonfire was lit, other fires could be seen igniting across the shoreline and the vicar explained how he had spread the word to try and reunite the seaside town in the wake of the devastation of the killing.
Earlier in the episode the Latimer family were, understandably, in a state of complete disbelief after learning their son’s killer was their neighbour.
Mark went to visit Joe in prison to confront him about his actions but left telling saying he pitied Joe and describing him as ‘nothing’.
As the Latimer family were being told the grim news, Joe’s wife Ellie had to explain to her son Tom, Danny’s former best friend, that his father was the killer.
Ellie was seen struggling with the truth with her colleague Detective Inspector Alec Hardy and wondered whether her husband was a pedophile.
Hardy was the one to crack the case after retrieving emails from Tom’s computer. Danny had only been emailing Tom and one other – Joe.
After Joe confessed to the crime he also admitted to buying Danny a phone and also giving him £500 because he wanted the young boy to love him.
Joe and Danny had been meeting up in secret and met up after the Miller family got back from Florida
Viewers saw Ellie confront her husband, but Joe swore that he had never touched Danny or either the couple’s two children in a sexual way.
The shock of his confession soon turned to rage and Ellie was seen flying at her husband and kicking him as he lay on the floor.
The Miller’s had returned from a holiday in Florida when Joe and Danny met up and the schoolboy threatened to tell other people about their meetings.
After running out of the house and returning to the Miller home Danny accused Joe of using him at which point Joe pinned him up against the wall and strangled him.
He carried his body out to the beach and was initially going to put him in a boat before changing his mind and deciding to leave him the body on the sand.
Joe’s guilt was revealed early on in the episode, when he joined his son at the police station after Tom was brought in for questioning about his smashed up computer.
But as Tom and his father left the police station Joe revealed that he wore a size 10 shoe, the same size as the print found at the crime scene and later at the hut.
After the questioning Detective Inspector Hardy visited the Miller home and found Joe in the shed looking worried and clutching a phone.
Joe told him: ‘I’m sick of hiding.’
As TV whodunit Broadchurch prepared to solve its nail-biting mystery its seven million fans found themselves in a state of considerable agitation.
Thousands of viewers took to Twitter and other online forums to speculate on who killed schoolboy Danny Latimer before the ITV series’ dramatic 9pm denouement.
The series – set in a fictional Dorset village – was so carefully plotted it was impossible to be sure which of the principal characters was guilty before the final episode was aired.
Producers kept the murderer’s identity a closely guarded secret as the list of prime suspects grew to include the local vicar, the detective’s husband and son and a newspaper journalist.
Many compared the moment to the memorable Dallas cliffhanger Who Shot JR? in 1980, when the protagonist J.R. Ewing was shot at the series end by an unseen assailant prompting a massive surge of interest in the show.
Writing on Twitter on Monday viewer Andrew Thompson said: ‘Forget who shot JR it’s who killed Danny Latimer??? @ITV #broadchurch where everyone is a suspect even the priest!!!!’
Emmy Roberts added: ‘Cannot wait for Broadchurch tonight … the suspense is killing me! @ITV #closure.’
Stewart Clark said: ‘Can’t get on with work because I’m too excited for Broadchurch tonight.’
Over eight episodes, Broadchurch has followed the police investigation of detective inspector Alec Hardy – played by former Dr Who star David Tennant – into the murder of 11-year-old Danny.
Since his body was found strangled at the foot of cliffs on the beach of a rural Dorset town, the list of prime suspects grew to nearly 20 names.
Possible killers included the boy’s father, Mark Latimer, whose alibi on the night of the murder fell apart.
Unusually for a hit drama, ITV refused to show a preview of last night’s episode to TV critics for fear the news would leak.
Producers even refused to tell the actors which of them was the murderer during filming, and confined the secret to just 29 crew members.
Writer Chris Chibnall said: ‘We made a decision early on: we wouldn’t tell the actor(s) or actress(es) playing the person(s) responsible for Danny Latimer’s death that they were the killer(s).
‘It added a level of intrigue to the production: The cast and crew started their own sweepstake, the make-up truck kept a rogues’ gallery of photofit pictures on their walls.’
With each twist and turn of the plot, bookmaker Ladbrokes has updated its odds on who killed Danny.
Before it screened the top suspect – at 4/6 – was Joe Miller.
His son, 11-year-old Tom Miller started the series at 16/1 but saw his odds slashed to 3/1 after he was seen destroying information on a mobile phone and laptop.
Newsagent Jack Marshall was arrested after it emerged he had been jailed for having sex with an underage girl, but dropped out of the list of prime suspects after killing himself.
Before the series screened last night, Broadchurch producer Richard Stokes hinted the clue might not be revealed until the final moment.
He tweeted: ‘#Broadchurch tonight- don’t miss the beginning and please watch to the very, very end. Thanks for joining us on the ride.’
