Tennant and Colman back in West Bay as cameras roll for Broadchurch 2

Security cleared the beach between Freshwater and East Beach in West Bay on Monday to finish what onlookers thought looked like a key scene.

Market trader Roy Gregory, who was on the beach involved in an unrelated video project, said they’d hoped to get their filming done quickly on a quiet beach only to find themselves barred by security while Broadchurch filming took place.

Mr Gregory said: “We turned up on the beach only to have to wait for an hour and a half while they finished filming.

“Security kept asking us to move on.

“Apparently the day before they were filming a part of the death plot.

“They were filming at the base of the cliff just where there was a rock fall and they wanted a clear beach as it was quite an importance sequence in the film.

“We were just stood a very long distance away waiting.”

The US version Gracepoint aired on Thursday (oct 2) – to mixed reviews.

David Tennant, who reprises his role as DI Hardy in his American counterpoint Detective Emmet Carver, didn’t impress critics with his American accent.

Entertainment Weekly described Tennant's performance, as ‘more pissy than pained, a cliché of the brooding, bad-mannered dick with a bum ticker. Gracepoint is good enough to keep you guessing, but not good enough to keep you from shrugging.’ The New York Daily News thought the American version was ‘considerably more than a pale echo’ and described it as ‘a well-paced, multilayered story’.

The Huffington Post called the show a ‘problematic slog’ and said: ‘it isn't much fun watching David Tennant, who played the lead role in Broadchurch, struggle with an American accent.’ Variety also said Tennant's Yankee accent takes ‘some serious getting used to’.

Critic Willa Paskin said something has been lost in the U.K.-to-U.S. translation.

She said: “Something about it (Gracepoint) is less sharp, less bright, less keen, and you are left with a washed-out flier you have seen before.

In the New York Times Tennant says he has no regrets about reprising the character in America.

He said: “It was such an unusual thing to be asked to do … there was a novelty to it, and I’m always a sucker for professional variety.

“I had no hesitation at all … to have watched someone else do this would have made me very sad.

“It’s a story I love and a piece of writing I still love.”

Gracepoint is to air in the UK on ITV, but an air date hasn't been confirmed yet.