Five reasons we're still in love with Broadchurch (spoilers!)

Olivia Colman

Let's face it: she's brilliant, and Broadchurch is worth watching for her performance alone. Never less than utterly convincing, even in the face of utterly unconvincing storylines (yes, we're looking at you, this week's courtroom plot twist.)

Eve Miles

Some of us saw the "Claire as suspect" plot twist coming last week (who wants to bet Lee was having a thing with the babysitter?), but Eve Miles is playing her with exactly the right mix of manipulativeness and vulnerability, from the not-quite-seductive half smiles she's casting at DI Hardy to the almost-genuine friendliness she's shown towards Ellie. And while we're at it, hurrah for a drama where so many of the pivotal characters are women.

The houses

Yes, we know it's probably REALLY impractical in the winter, but we really really want to stay in Alec's waterside home. Every time it comes on screen you can just imagine sitting there watching the sun go down with a nice glass of wine. If only we had £275,000. And the view from Charlotte Rampling's cliff top house is really something. A shame she probably can't see it.

We'll never get tired of seeing Dorset on the telly

Reminding us all that we're very lucky to live so close to such a beautiful coastline

Chris Chibnall's REALLY good at making you doubt whodunnit

No, we don't mean Joe Miller, whose decision to plead not guilty only confirms beyond doubt that he's a nasty piece of knitting. Was that a little of grimace of guilt that passed over his face as his defence barrister attempted to recast his Ellie's devastation at his confession as an attempt to frame him for a crime he didn't commit? It should have been.

No, what we mean is the Lee or Claire question. It's very unlikely that we're going to be seeing a whole new set of Sandbrook suspects, so let's assume that either Claire or Lee is the guilty party. But which one?

Some TV critics have complained that this series has suffered from being focused on the courtroom drama, especially when that drama has been roundly critised for being a bit ridiculous implausible. But we wouldn't bet against the Sandbrook case becoming more and more central as the parallels between Ellie and Claire continue to be drawn - meaning we've got weeks of speculation and red herrings about who's the real killer to come.

Last week we were adamant it would turn out to be Claire, (and feeling smug for spotting it early) but this week cast her too squarely in the position of suspect - does that mean it can't be her? And yet Lee doesn't behave a lot like a man who knows he's guilty but is pretending he isn't. One thing we can be sure of: we'll be changing our minds a lot about this over the next few weeks.