‘Better than Broadchurch’
With countless British crime dramas available to stream, choosing what to watch next can feel overwhelming. Massive successes such as Happy Valley, Line of Duty and Adolescence have captivated both audiences and critics.
Recent years have also seen viewer favourites including Vera, Unforgotten, The Fall, Luther and, naturally, Peaky Blinders. However, a brand new drama has just dropped that’s already being hailed as “better than Broadchurch”. And it’s available to stream right now.
Launched within the past week, Under Salt Marsh boasts an impressive cast featuring Kelly Reilly (of Yellowstone fame), Rafe Spall of The English and legendary acting powerhouse Jonathan Pryce, whose credits include The Two Popes, The Crown, Game of Thrones and Glengarry Glen Ross, which has been dubbed the film with the “greatest cast of all time”.
The moody, atmospheric new drama, which holds a perfect 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, unfolds in an isolated coastal village in north-west Wales under threat from rising sea levels. Known as Morfa Halen in the programme, it’s actually inspired by the genuine Welsh village of Fairbourne, whose inhabitants genuinely face the possibility of abandoning their picturesque village due to rising sea levels, reports the Express.
Sequences from the series were shot in the village itself. The breath-taking footage of marshland featured throughout was captured in the nearby Mawddach Estuary. It’s within this wetland setting that Reilly’s character, Jackie Ellis, a former detective turned teacher, discovers the corpse of a young lad. Whilst tragic on its own, the find also brings back the trauma of an unresolved case involving a missing girl from the village three years earlier, which brought Ellis’s policing career to an end.
Reviewers claim it “could be the best British crime drama in years”. In Vogue, Daisy Jones wrote: “It’s hard to find a genuinely compelling British crime drama these days. Netflix is crammed with throwaway Harlan Coben offerings… ITV detective shows are a dime-a-dozen… But Under Salt Marsh… is one such drama that’s worth paying attention to. It’s one of the more gripping thrillers I’ve seen in years.”
In the Sydney Morning Herald, Craig Mathiseon described Under Salt Marsh as “as good as Broadchurch”, the massive success featuring Olivia Colman and David Tennant that aired from 2013-2017. Meanwhile, Irish News declared it “the best thing on TV right now”.
Is Under Salt Marsh based on a true story?
Under Salt Marsh features two distinct storylines. One centres on the finding of a young boy’s remains (and the unresolved vanishing of a missing girl three years before). This isn’t based on actual events.
The other focuses on the environmental crisis threatening the community. And this is rooted in actual events. Whilst Morfa Halen is fictional, it’s inspired by (and shot in) Fairbourne, where residents were told in 2013 they could become the globe’s first “climate refugees”.
Authorities said then that the village’s sea defences wouldn’t be kept up after 2054, with a “managed retreat” strategy proposed that would see inhabitants relocated and the village ultimately surrendered to the ocean.
Residents mounted fierce opposition to the proposals, which have never been spelled out in significant detail, and it appears officials may now be backtracking and prepared to abandon earlier pledges to “decommissioning” the community.
Under Salt Marsh is streaming on Now TV now.