| Genre: | Drama |
| Creator: | Jimmy McGovern |
| Director: | Ashley Pearce Noreen Kershaw |
| Starring: | Sean Bean Adrian Dunbar Anna Friel Muna Otaru Mark Stanley Aisling Loftus Paula Malcolmson Ned Dennehy Danny Sapani |
| Opentheme: | "I Think It's Going to Rain Today" by Nina Simone |
| Endtheme: | "Broken" by Ray Davies[1] |
| Composer: | Matthew Hall Stephen Vedmore |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Language: | English |
| Num Series: | 1 |
| Num Episodes: | 6 |
| Executive Producer: | Colin McKeown Jimmy McGovern Sean Bean |
| Producer: | Donna Molloy |
| Editor: | Patrick Hall Kyle Ogden |
| Cinematography: | Joel Devlin |
| Runtime: | 60 minutes |
| Company: | LA Productions |
| Channel: | BBC One |
Broken is a six-part British television drama series, created by Jimmy McGovern, that first broadcast on BBC One on 30 May 2017. The series focuses on Michael Kerrigan (Sean Bean), the priest of a Roman Catholic parish in a northern English city, who despite suffering from his own troubles stemming from a traumatic childhood, tries to guide several of his most vulnerable parishioners through the trials and tribulations of everyday life.
The series was directed by Ashley Pearce and Noreen Kershaw; while Shaun Duggan, Colette Kane and Nick Leather all contributed to McGovern's scripts. The series was released on DVD on 10 July 2017.[2]
The series, produced by LA Productions, was commissioned in 2015; with filming taking place throughout 2016.[2]
This series was filmed in Liverpool, although the city is not directly mentioned in the series itself.[3] Some scenes are shot in trains, implying that Father Michael commutes between his Lancashire parish and his Irish mother and second-generation siblings in Sheffield. The featured church is St Francis Xavier Church, Liverpool.[4]
| Episode | Title | Written by | Directed by | Viewers (millions)[5] | Original airdate |
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The series was originally due to begin on 23 May, but the broadcast was postponed following the Manchester Arena bombing the previous night, and was replaced in the schedules by a repeat of Planet Earth II.[6] This was due to the nature of the storyline in the first episode, which focuses on mum-of-three Christina Fitzsimmons (Anna Friel), who after losing her job, resorts to keeping her mother's death a secret in order to continue claiming her state pension.[7]
]
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