Olivia Colman 'accident' nearly ruined major rule on best British crime drama now on Netflix

Olivia Colman revealed how an 'accident' nearly ruined a major producer rule during filming of her legendary series Broadchurch, which is now streaming on Netflix.

Widely considered one of the best British crime dramas of all time, Broadchurch follows the fallout after the disappearance and murder of an 11-year-old boy in a cosy seaside town.

And with a cast which includes names such as Colman, David Tennant, Jonathan Bailey and Jodie Whittaker, you know you're in for a good ride.

The three-season series is also known for its epic plot twists, which producers decided to keep hidden from the show's cast for dramatic effect.

Well, nearly everyone in the show, as it turns out that The Favourite star Colman was accidentally made privy to a major spoiler.

Olivia Colman learnt the major Broadchurch spoiler during her audition (Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images)

During an interview with comedian Amy Poehler on her Good Hang podcast, Colman revealed that she accidentally learnt the identity of 11-year-old Danny Latimer's killer during her audition.

"No one knew who had done it. That was what they wanted," she explained, before going on to reveal that she'd managed to learn the killer's identity during her audition.

"When I went for my first audition, my sort of meet with the producers, I said: ‘Who did it?’ And they told me and I went: ‘Oh!’ and cried," she recalled.

"They went, ‘that’s great, that’s what we want’ and then I’m on the way home, like 20 minutes after I’d left, and they phoned and went: ‘Uh, can you pretend that we didn’t tell you? We’ve realised we don’t want anyone to know'."

And just like that, Colman was made to sit on a major piece of knowledge for months of filming, unbeknownst to her co-stars.

The 51-year-old nearly got away with it as well, until one day when her agent slipped up and revealed her subterfuge to Tennant.

And David Tennant wasn't impressed (BBC)

"David was so cross with me," she recalled.

"One day, his agent accidentally let slip – right near the end of months of filming – and he flew into my [trailer] and went: ‘You f**king didn’t tell me.’ And I knew what he meant, I just couldn’t look at him.

"He didn’t know – no one knew, they’d accidentally told me."

Colman even remembered seeing her fellow cast and crew members sticking pictures of the characters on the wall and attempting to guess who the killer was, all while she watched and had to pretend that she had no idea.

"It was really fun," she added.

All three seasons of Broadchurch are available to stream on Netflix.