"We've had another bit of a tussle. I won, obviously." Catherine Cawood Happy Valley Series 3 Episode 6. My name is Luke and I have a confession to make. I was sat at the Edinburgh Television Festival in 2015 (I think) when the BBC announced that Happy Valley would be...
The penultimate Happy Valley consisted of three deeply important conversations. The first comes from an unlikely source. Several times throughout the course of the series, Ryan (Rhys Connah) has asked his family to be honest with him about what his dad subjected his...
Last week, as Ryan was leaving his visit with his 'father', Tommy (James Norton) asked him how his bungee jump went. It felt like a glib throwaway question, especially when he proposed the idea of a father and son jump in a few years. Even Ryan (Rhys Connah) dismissed...
Happy Valley has always been Ryan's story. That's the main reason we had to wait such a long time for this final series. Sally Wainwright wanted to wait for Ryan (and the actor Rhys Connah) to be of age to tell the story she wanted. Following on from last week's...
I have praised Sally Wainwright's dialogue in every review of one of her shows I've ever written. The second episode of Happy Valley series 3 proved it can be just as powerful in its quieter moments. The bombshell that it's Claire (Siobhan Finneran) and her boyfriend...
ere were times when I worried the BBC had forgotten they'd commissioned a third series of Happy Valley. Sally Wainwright had busied herself with passion project Gentlemen Jack and started work on a new Disney+ series, The Ballad of Renegade Nell. It had seemed Happy...
Hold the front page people, Trish is alive! As is Asbo, for those of you who didn’t spot him in the next bed to Kev (to be fair, it was a very quick shot). I have spent much of this week consoling Asbo fans on twitter, so I hope you are all ok now. As Julie considered...
I think we can all agree that was a completely unacceptable ending. I’m furious. How dare you make me care that much about a character over a mere 6 hours of extraordinary TV and then kill her off? I don’t want to believe it’s true. But there’s a body and it’s not...
Lucy Kirkwood (the lady behind this excellent drama) suggested that this episode was the one where nothing happens. There isn't a big fire to fight, instead, we join the nation's new favourite fire fighters on a hot summer's day. They are stuck in the station with...
This week ticked all the boxes for me. We learnt that Fat Yoga Man is called Biggles. Ziggy continued to feature heavily. Mal kept it in his trousers. It was a beautiful full of love, joy, and Gog’s battered face. Oh well we nearly made it through without upset. So,...
I don’t know how much more of this I can take. You see that lump over there? That’s my heart, right where Jamie Bamber just ripped it out and threw it. I still love you too, and I ain’t leaving. Not like poor Trish, who confessed all about her daughter in a rush but...
Sky/Kudos I’m beginning to feel guilty for encouraging you all to watch this show. I mean, it is absolutely gut-wrenching and brilliant but bloody hell, my nerves are shot to pieces! That closing scene with Gog glaring through the letter box gave me a bad case of the...
I’d read a couple of previews for this episode that said the pace slowed down a bit. Now I’ve never had to rescue a pensioner with a mangled leg, from a burning building, across a pile of scrapped cars, but I’m pretty sure that wouldn’t be a slow day. So we’ll...
Sky Deep breaths everyone, we made it through together! If you found yourselves moved to tears by that incredible opening sequence, don’t worry. Jamie Bamber (utterly magnificent as lead firefighter Kev) was sat 3 seats in front of me at the preview screening and I...
Sky has made a huge commitment to original drama and this year sees the launch of several bold programming choices, across their pay-to-view channels. To entice you in, Sky have brokered a deal with Youtube to show the first episode of all their new programmes. Of...