Southcliffe

A village is the dramatic focus of many new TV series. For example, Broadchurch, The Fall and Top of the Lake. Regarded as one of 2013’s best, Southcliffe also revolves around a small rural community, wrapped up in greyness, rain and suspicion. When the emotionally unstable recluse Stephen Morton snaps and starts shooting his fellow villagers seemingly at random, a collective trauma is added to the general malaise.
Southcliffe tries to uncover how it could all go so wrong. More than this, however, this four-part series is a study in the process of mourning. The tangled – and eventually deadly – web of relations within the village unfolds through the eyes of journalist David Whitehead, who grew up there and has returned to report on the aftermath of the tragedy.
Top British acting talent, art direction dominated by shades of brown and grey and a constant sense of barely repressed unease make watching Southcliffe an almost claustrophobic experience.