british drama television receiver serial

Happy Valley is a british crime drama television receiver series filmed and set in the Calder Valley, West Yorkshire, in Northern England. The series, starring Sarah Lancashire and Siobhan Finneran, is written and created by Sally Wainwright, and directed by Wainwright, Euros Lyn, and Tim Fywell. The first gear series debuted on BBC One on 29 April 2014, and the second base series debuted on 9 February 2016. In May 2015, Happy Valley won the BAFTA Award for Best Drama Series. [ 1 ] A third and final series was announced in October 2021 with filming set to commence in early 2022. [ 2 ] [ 3 ]

premise [edit ]

Series 1 [edit ]

Catherine Cawood ( Sarah Lancashire ) is a strong-minded police sergeant in West Yorkshire, even coming to terms with the suicide of her adolescent daughter, Becky, eight years earlier. Cawood is now divorced from her conserve and living with her sister, Clare ( Siobhan Finneran ), a recovering alcoholic and heroin addict, who is helping her bring up Becky ‘s youthful son, Ryan ( Rhys Connah ), the intersection of rape. Neither Catherine ‘s ex-husband nor their adult son, Daniel, want anything to do with Ryan. Catherine hears that Tommy Lee Royce ( James Norton ), the homo creditworthy for the brutal rape that impregnated Becky and drove her to suicide concisely after Ryan was born, is out of prison after serving eight years for drug charges. Catherine soon becomes obsessed with finding Royce, unaware that he is involved in the kidnapping of Ann Gallagher ( Charlie Murphy ), a plot instigated by Kevin Weatherill ( Steve Pemberton ) and orchestrated by Ashley Cowgill ( Joe Armstrong ). Things quickly take a dark twist as the abductors scramble to keep the kidnap mystery, although Catherine is on to them.

Series 2 [edit ]

eighteen months after the events of the inaugural serial, Catherine Cawood ( Sarah Lancashire ) is back at work and has won the Queen ‘s Police Medal ( QPM ) for heroism, for rescuing Ann Gallagher ( Charlie Murphy ) from Tommy Lee Royce ( James Norton ), who is serving a biography sentence in prison. But when Royce ‘s mother is killed, Catherine finds herself implicated in a string of murders. While trying to prove her innocence, Catherine is tasked with investigating a homo traffic operation linked to the serial killings. meanwhile, aged HMIT officers Detective Superintendent Andy Shepard ( Vincent Franklin ) and Detective Inspector Jodie Shackleton ( Katherine Kelly ) begin to suspect that the supposed fourth victim of the serial cause of death, Victoria Fleming ( Amelia Bullmore ), was murdered by person else. Gradually their probe starts to lead them towards Victoria ‘s actual cause of death : patrol detective John Wadsworth ( Kevin Doyle ), whom Fleming had been blackmailing. Catherine ‘s grandson, Ryan, develops a friendship with a modern teach adjunct, Miss Wealand ( Shirley Henderson ), who is secretly a prison groupie infatuated with Royce. Royce, whom the court has forbidden from having any contact with Ryan, is using Wealand to try to build a relationship with Ryan and get revenge on Catherine. Ryan increasingly concerns his family by asking questions about his beget and even suggests Royce should be forgiven .

Episodes [edit ]

Series Episodes Originally aired Ave. UK viewers
(in millions)[4]
First aired Last aired
1 6 29 April 2014 3 June 2014 8.21
2 6 9 February 2016 15 March 2016 9.37
3 TBA TBA TBA TBA

project [edit ]

product [edit ]

On 22 November 2012, Ben Stephenson announced the commission of Happy Valley for BBC One. The program was written by Sally Wainwright, produced by Karen Lewis, and directed by Euros Lyn, Sally Wainwright and Tim Fywell. [ 5 ] [ 6 ] Filming began in the Calder Valley in November 2013. [ 7 ] [ 8 ] Locations in the area included Todmorden, Luddenden, Mytholmroyd, Bradford, Keighley, Sowerby Bridge, Hebden Bridge, and Heptonstall. Huddersfield, Halifax, Bradford, Leeds and early West Yorkshire cities are mentioned, though not main film locations. A former patrol post ( Station Road, Sowerby Bridge ) was used for some scenes, and extra film took position at North Light Film Studios at Brookes Mill, Huddersfield. [ 9 ] The name “ happy Valley ” is what local police in the Calder Valley call the area because of its drug trouble. [ 10 ] In the series one premier episode, Ryan points out to Catherine, who is visiting her daughter Becky ‘s grave accent in the following row, that visitors have left pens at Sylvia Plath ‘s scratch. A moment series was commissioned on 18 August 2014. Filming began in August 2015, and the first base episode was broadcast on 9 February 2016. [ 11 ] The second series was written by Wainwright, produced by Lewis, and directed by Lyn and Wainwright. [ 12 ] Catherine ‘s workplace is a former police place in Sowerby Bridge, and her home and local public house ( two early independent film locations ) are based in Hebden Bridge. The prison scenes were filmed at Oakham Enterprise Park in Rutland, which was HMP Ashwell until its closure. The independent fictional character, “ sergeant Cawood ”, is mentioned in the third episode of the fifth serial of Last Tango in Halifax, which aired on BBC One on 9 March 2020. This series was besides created and written by Wainwight, set in Halifax, and besides stars Sarah Lancashire. In October 2020, Wainwright confirmed that there would be a third serial and that she was in the “ early stages ” of writing it .

reception [edit ]

The first sequence aired on 29 April 2014 at 21:00. It garnered 8.64 million viewers, and it was the second most watch show of the workweek ( commencing 28 April 2014 ) for BBC One. [ 13 ] The BBC reported that the show received an modal consolidate audience of 8.21 million viewers, over six episodes, and an extra 8.1 million requests for the testify on BBC iPlayer. [ 14 ] Radio Times called Happy Valley a “ viva-voce strike ” which “ steadily became a success outside the normal audience for the slot and distribution channel. ” [ 15 ] After “ Episode 1 ” aired, Ofcom received four complaints under the class “ violence and dangerous behavior ”, but they did not pursue the count. [ 16 ]

Reviews from the media have been overwhelmingly convinced, and the show has received 100 % evaluation critic review on Rotten Tomatoes. [ 17 ] however, some reviewers have criticised the show for its graphic subject, specially in “ Episode 3 ” and “ Episode 4 ”. In reaction to the criticism, Happy Valley ‘s creator-writer, Wainwright, defended the prove as “ a quality, well-written drama ” and stated, “ pronounce by the sum of electronic mail, text, tweets I ‘ve had, I do n’t think anyone is asking me to apologise. ” [ 18 ] In an interview with Radio Times, Wainwright said the tied of violence had been carefully considered and it was done responsibly, by showing the psychological and physical damage suffered by Catherine. [ 19 ] other critics have praised the read. Vicky Frost of The Guardian wrote : “ To get hung up on the violence of this BBC1 kidnap drama misses the detail. It is beautifully written by Sally Wainwright, draws an amaze operation from Sarah Lancashire—and between them, they have created something in truth unmissable. ” [ 20 ] Gerard O’Donovan of The Telegraph called Happy Valley “ complex, thrilling and brilliantly written and acted ”, and “ one of the best watches of 2014. ” [ 21 ] In September 2019, The Guardian ranked the prove 11th on its number of the 100 best television shows of the twenty-first century, calling it “ a corrective to cliché-ridden and frequently blokey patrol procedurals ”, and one that “ pulsated with affecting reality ”. [ 22 ]

Awards [edit ]

In May 2015, Happy Valley won the BAFTA Award for Best Drama Series. [ 23 ] In 2014, it had won a television Choice Award for Best New Drama ; Sarah Lancashire was named Best actress at the same time. The series was besides voted the best television receiver program of 2014 by readers of Radio Times. [ 24 ]

International [edit ]

Awards and nominations [edit ]

Series One
Series Two

home media [edit ]

BBC Shop released Happy Valley series one on DVD, in regions two and four, on 16 June 2014. The DVD includes two disk, featuring 351 minutes ‘ deserving of footage, and has an age security of 15. [ 31 ] All six episodes of the series were released on iTunes, both in standard and high definition. [ 32 ] On 20 August 2014, the series was further released on Netflix in Canada and the USA, marketed as a “ Netflix Original ”. [ 33 ] however, it departed Netflix in March 2020. [ 34 ] In the summer of 2016 series 1 of Happy Valley was released on Netflix in the UK and is presently repeated on the channel W. A year belated serial 2 was released on Netflix in the UK .

References [edit ]