The Bay (TV series)

The Bay is a British crime drama television series produced by Tall Story Pictures and distributed worldwide by ITV Studios Global Entertainment that first aired in March 2019 on ITV. The first two series starred Morven Christie as a detective sergeant family liaison officer. Marsha Thomason took over the leading role from series three as DS Jenn Townsend. The first series centred around an investigation into teenage missing twins from a family living in Morecambe. The name of the series derives from Morecambe Bay, in the county of Lancashire in the north-west of England.

The first series received an average of 7.2 million views across the six episodes. A second series of six episodes was confirmed on 4 May 2019 and it was originally planned for it to be broadcast in mid-2020. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was pushed back to early 2021; in January of that year, all six episodes were immediately made available on the ITV Hub, receiving an average of 7.9 million views.

A third series was filmed in the summer 2021. Christie decided to leave the show following production on the second series and Marsha Thomason was cast as the new lead, DS Jenn Townsend. After the last episode of series 3 was broadcast a fourth series was announced, and filming completed June 2022. It was renewed for a fifth series and filming began in July 2023.

Cast

 * Morven Christie as DS/DC Lisa Armstrong (Series 1–2)
 * Marsha Thomason as DS Jenn Townsend (Series 3—present)
 * Daniel Ryan as DI Anthony 'Tony' Manning
 * Erin Shanagher as Sgt./DS Karen Hobson
 * Andrew Dowbiggin as DS James Clarke
 * Simon Manyonda as DS Alexander Stewart (Series 1–2)
 * Thomas Law as DC Eddie Martin (Series 2—4)
 * Taheen Modak as DC/DS Ahmed 'Med' Kharim (Series 1–2)
 * Lindsey Coulson as Penny Armstrong (Series 1–2)
 * Imogen King as Abbie Armstrong (Series 1–2)
 * Art Parkinson as Rob Armstrong (Series 1–2)
 * Barry Sloane as Chris Fischer (Series 3-present)
 * Georgina Scholes as Erin Fischer (Series 3-present)

Series 1 (2019)

 * Jonas Armstrong as Sean Meredith
 * Matthew McNulty as Nick Mooney
 * Chanel Cresswell as Jess Meredith
 * Tracie Bennett as Margaret Foley
 * Adam Long as Vincent Chapman/Victor Cook
 * Philip Hill-Pearson as Ryan Foley
 * Martina Laird as Bernie Ward
 * Richard Huw as Tom Hayes
 * Jordan Mifsúd as Krzysztof Babakowski
 * Ellie Duckles as Hanna Babakowski
 * Ciaran Griffiths as Lee Ward
 * Louis Greatorex as Sam Hesketh
 * Roger Barclay as Councillor Hesketh
 * Darci Shaw as Holly Meredith
 * Noah Valentine as Dylan Meredith
 * Lucy Hillyard as Kelly Meredith
 * Liam McCheyne as Jake Meredith

Series 2 (2021)

 * Joe Absolom as Andy Warren
 * James Cosmo as Bill Bradwell
 * Stephen Tompkinson as Stephen Marshbrook
 * Sharon Small as Rose Marshbrook
 * Amy James-Kelly as Grace Marshbrook
 * Jack Archer as Jamie Marshbrook
 * Steven Robertson as Mark Bradwell
 * Sunetra Sarker as Stella Bradwell
 * Steven Elder as DCI Pearson
 * Adam Hussain as Josh Nubhai
 * Arian Nik as Theo Anvari
 * Wendy Kweh as Lyn Chee
 * Sian Breckin as Madeline Hookway
 * Kerrie Taylor as Ellen Manning
 * Zaraah Abrahams as DS Emma Ryan
 * Jade Greyul as Lateesha Kharim
 * Owen McDonnell as Frank Mercer

Series 3 (2022)

 * David Carpenter as Conor Townsend
 * Emme Hayes as Maddie Townsend
 * Mark Stanley as Warren Pryce
 * Vincent Regan as Ray Conlon
 * Rina Mahoney as Mariam Rahman
 * Brahmdeo Shannon Ramana as Saif Rahman
 * Nadeem Islam as Jamal Rahman
 * Michael Karim as Adnan Rahman
 * Ash Tandon as Kareem Riaz
 * Zahra Ahmadi as Shazia Riaz
 * Gary Lewis as Vinnie Morrison
 * Isabel Caswell as Molly Williams

Series 4 (2023)

 * Karl Davies as Carl McGregor
 * Claire Goose as Jacqui Fischer
 * Ian Puleston-Davies as Terry McGregor
 * Kerrie Taylor as Ellen Manning
 * Tom Taylor as Matt Metcalf
 * Eloise Thomas as Izzy Metcalf
 * Joe Armstrong as Dean Metcalf
 * Robert Beck as Len Reid

Series 1 (2019)
Detective Sergeant Lisa Armstrong (Morven Christie) is the mother of two children and working for the fictional West Lancashire Police Service as a Family Liaison Officer (FLO). She is called out on the case of two missing teenagers, only to find the married stepfather of the twins is someone with whom she had sex the night before in an alley behind a pub. Lisa's interaction with Sean (Jonas Armstrong) has been caught on CCTV, but she deletes the footage rather than coming clean and admitting to the one-night stand, complicating the investigation.

Series 2 (2021)
Lisa's suspension is over but she has been demoted, whilst Med has been promoted. A solicitor is shot on his doorstep. The team investigates. To complicate Lisa's life further, her ex-husband Andy (Joe Absolom) reappears in Morecambe.

Series 3 (2022)
DS Townsend (Marsha Thomason) is immediately thrown into the deep end when a body is found in the bay on her first day in the job. She must get under the skin of a grieving and complicated family if she has any chance of solving the premature death of an aspiring young boxer.

Production
The series has been labelled the "Northern Broadchurch", or the "New Broadchurch" after a similar British crime drama called Broadchurch starring Olivia Colman and David Tennant. The writer of the series, Daragh Carville, is originally from Northern Ireland, but wanted to set something where he now lives. I wanted to write something that's set where I have lived for the last 10 years. It's an interesting place and beautiful but it's also a place with problems. It's suffered a great deal with austerity.

The series was shot in and around Morecambe, particularly on the beaches and in the Winter Gardens, where writer Daragh Carville stated that the people of Morecambe took quite an interest in the show and were keen to see that they, and their town, were not misrepresented on screen. Other scenes were also shot in Manchester, Whitehaven and Grange-over-Sands.

Series 1 (2019)
The Daily Telegraph rated the first and second episodes in the series with three stars out of five, and whilst acknowledging the lead character's portrayal, described the series as "Lancashire's riposte to/total rip-off of Broadchurch". The Independent also awarded it three stars out of five, labelling the series as having texture, but that the characterisation of the conundrum faced by DS Armstrong as being "cold". The Guardian was more positive and gave it four stars out of five stating "Suspects and police officers with shared secrets? Check. Information wilfully withheld by the writer? Check. Will you be hooked? Check."

Katrina Williams, writing in the Glasgow Guardian, highlighted the high standard of production amidst the formulaic setting of the crime drama and noted that "I wasn't desperate for the next episode, but the first episode still managed to strike my interest".

Series 2 (2021)
Dominic Maxwell, reviewing for The Times, gave the first episode of the second series four stars out of five, commenting that the episode was "a solid, finely crafted detective thriller" and it "could just be the downbeat yet propulsive distraction we need right now". Rachel Sigee, reviewing for the newspaper i, also gave it four stars praising Christie and suggesting "This engrossing first episode scattered enough clues [...] to set up an intriguing thriller". Anita Singh, reviewing for The Daily Telegraph, rated the first episode three stars out of five calling it "a refreshing return for this bracing seaside cop show", while Sean O'Grady for The Independent was more critical, commenting that "though the actors put in some commendable performances, they are all lumbered with carelessly constructed, barely two-dimensional characters" and gave it two stars.