THE MAN who created Broadchurch and made a star of West Bay has dedicated his latest award to the Bridport area tourism businesses who presented it to him.

Chris Chibnall, the writer and executive producer of the smash-hit ITV crime drama received the Bridport and District Tourism Association Award for making the most outstanding contribution to tourism.

The award-winning show will show off the West Dorset coast to 100 countries and has brought hordes of visitors to West Bay keen to see the iconic east cliff and beach.

Mr Chibnall, who lives in Bridport, remained tight-lipped about the location and plot of Broadchurch2, due to start filming later this year.

“I haven’t even told my father anything – and he’s really cross about that!” he joked.

He told association members at the Haddon House Hotel in West Bay: “In many ways I feel slightly a fraud getting this award, because the reason I wrote Broadchurch was that I came down here with my family on holiday and fell in love with the area.

“It was everyone here and the establishments you all run and the environment you have created down here for tourism that made me fall in love with it. Really Broadchurch couldn’t have happened without the amazing support of the community here.

“I was really lucky. I wrote my fantasy script and it had the hut at Eype and it had the caravans at Freshwater and it was very easy to sit at home and write that down.

“Then a whole team came along and persuaded people to co-operate. So the things that I wrote then became reality and got on screen and got into people’s minds and hearts because of the people in this room and everybody who lives locally. The support for the show has really blown all of us away.”

“It feels like not only a team effort on the production, but it is like the whole area got behind the show in production and then when it went out it was received so positively, it took us all by surprise.

“Again everybody in this area got behind it and supported it and was so incredibly positive and that has been such an extraordinary experience.

“So I would like to say thank you to you, because the things that make Broadchurch special are this area and the people in this area so I can only take this as a recognition of everybody in this community.”

The latest in a string of accolades, the BDTA award, presented by association chairman Scott Condliffe, was the third in a week that Mr Chibnall had accepted.

The show won two prizes including best drama series and international programme sales award at this year's Broadcast Awards.

It beat competition from The Fall, Last Tango in Halifax and Top of the Lake to take the prize from the TV industry magazine.