Dawn and Sarah join Matt to talk about the best Christmas TV and review the first 4 new shows of the new year. Firstly, Sky and Peacock bring us Colin Firth in a harrowing retelling of one man's search for answers following the Lockerbie disaster. Then, James Norton...
"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...
This year the BBC turns 100. Fundamental to Britain and funded by licence fee payers, the BBC has garnered a worldwide reputation for quality. For this special post highlighting the highlights of the corporation's massive contribution to television, I've decided to...
Yesterday brought the news that BBC Two have given The Fall a third series. Obviously we reported the news, but it was through gritted teeth. Do we honestly need a third series of this, or more likely is it the BBC's attempt to capitalize on the popularity of...
So we've done it! We've reached the end of the year. 2014 wasn't as packed as last year, but when it was good, it was very good indeed. Sherlock - Series 3 (January 2014, BBC1) 2014 began with one of the most anticipated returns in a long time when we all sat round to...
Following its success in the ratings a few months ago, ITV have confirmed period crime drama Grantchester will return for a second series in 2015. The series, which is to début in the US next month centres around the life of Sidney Chambers, a charismatic,...
Welcome back once again as I take a gander at what TV has had to offer in the last seven days. ITV crime drama has almost become a genre in and of itself with one channel; ITV 3, almost exclusively dedicated to airing the network's past offerings. Last week also saw...
On the most recent podcast we discuss new BBC2 documentary The Kitchen, the final of the Great British Bake Off and Grantchester.
The first time I saw the word Grantchester I thought someone was having a bit of a laugh. It sounded like the kind of fictional town you find in Viz magazine, but on further inspection Grantchester is, in fact, a real town – just to the south of Cambridge. As I read...
UK television is becoming more and more like American. If something is a huge ratings success, and even if it feels like the story has been told, broadcasters still feel the need to bring it back for another outing in hopes of securing that top audience. We've seen it...
In our last podcast before football completely takes over we look at the final episodes of Happy Valley, In the Flesh, Britain's Got Talent and Gary finds some childhood history.
Original British drama Happy Valley, created by BAFTA-winning writer Sally Wainwright and produced by RED Production Company for BBC One, drew to a close last Tuesday after the series was acclaimed by the audience and critics alike. Happy Valley, starring Sarah...
As TV winds down for the summer, and some football tournament or other, this week's Matt on the Box will primarily be focusing on programmes that are coming to an end. The first series to come to an end this week was BBC's family saga From There to Here which...
In our latest podcast Matt & I discuss our disappointment surrounding Britain's Got Talent, our obsession with Happy Valley and the need for more socks! Gary reports on the US shows returning and leaving UK screens.
Last night I sat open-mouthed in shock as I watched the closing moments of Sally Wainwright's crime drama Happy Valley. The episode saw Sarah Lancashire's PC Catherine Cawood finally discover missing Ann Gallagher after four nights of worry for her parents. The...
Prey. Happy Valley. Hinterland. Vera. Four shows which feature on our screens this week alone, dominating our evening viewing schedule. These programmes are the latest in a long line of crime dramas which, when added to the list of recent series such as...
We take a look at two big dramas in ITV's Prey and BBC1's Happy Valley.
Welcome back to another look at the past week's TV. We start with yet another crime drama on ITV but I can say without a doubt that Prey is nothing like the channel's recent offerings such as Endeavour and Vera. The drama focuses on Marcus Farrow (John Simm) a...
With her recent success with Last Tango in Halifax and ITV's Scott & Bailey you can't blame the BBC for asking Sally Wainwright to write a new police drama for them. Of course, this being Sally Wainwright what she has delivered is much more than a police...