Happy Valley (TV series)

• Sarah Lancashire as Sgt Catherine Cawood
• Siobhan Finneran as Clare Cartwright
• Charlie Murphy as Ann Gallagher
• James Norton as Tommy Lee Royce
• George Costigan as Nevison Gallagher
• Rhys Connah as Ryan Cawood

On 22 November 2012, Ben Stephenson announced the commissioning of Happy Valley for BBC One. The programme was written by Sally Wainwright, produced by Karen Lewis, and directed by Euros Lyn, Sally Wainwright and Tim Fywell.[4][5]

Filming began in the Calder Valley in November 2013.[6][7] Locations in the area included Todmorden, Luddenden, Mytholmroyd, Bradford, Keighley, Sowerby Bridge, Hebden Bridge, and Heptonstall. Huddersfield, Halifax, Bradford, Leeds and other West Yorkshire cities are mentioned, though not main filming locations. A former police station (Station Road, Sowerby Bridge) was used for some scenes, and additional filming took place at North Light Film Studios at Brookes Mill, Huddersfield.[8]

The name "Happy Valley" is what local police in the Calder Valley call the area because of its drug problem.[9]

In the first episode of series one, Ryan points out to Catherine, visiting her daughter Becky's grave in the next row, that visitors have left pens at Sylvia Plath's grave.

A second series was commissioned on 18 August 2014. Filming began in August 2015, and the first episode was broadcast on 9 February 2016.[10] The second series was written by Wainwright, produced by Lewis, and directed by Lyn and Wainwright.[11] Catherine's workplace is a former police station in Sowerby Bridge, and her home and local pub (two other main filming 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 main character, Sergeant Cawood, is mentioned in the third episode of the fifth series of Last Tango in Halifax, which aired on BBC One on 9 March 2020. Wainwright also created and wrote this series, set in Halifax, and stars Sarah Lancashire.

In October 2020, Wainwright confirmed that there would be a third series and that she was in the "early stages" of writing it. Filming for the third series began in January 2022.

After watching the first three episodes of the season, Wainwright didn´t like some directorial choices made by Patrick Harkins and decided to reshoot some scenes herself, hence her credit as a director, but not co-director, on those episodes.

The first episode aired on 29 April 2014 at 21:00, receiving 8.64 million viewers, as the second most watched show of the week (commencing 28 April 2014) for BBC One.[12] The BBC reported that the show received an average consolidated audience of 8.21 million viewers over six episodes and an additional 8.1 million requests for the show on BBC iPlayer.[13] Radio Times called Happy Valley a "word-of-mouth hit" which "steadily became a success outside the normal audience for the slot and channel."[14]

After episode one aired, Ofcom received four complaints under the category "violence and dangerous behaviour", but they did not pursue the matter.[15]

Reviews from the media have been overwhelmingly positive, and the show has received 100% rating critic review on Rotten Tomatoes.[16] However, some reviewers have criticised the show for its graphic content, especially in episode three and episode four, while others have noted the ubiquitous typecasting of male characters as either weak or criminals.[17]

In response to the criticism, Happy Valley's creator-writer, Wainwright, defended the show as "a quality, well-written drama" and stated, "Judging by the amount of email, texts, tweets I've had, I don't think anyone is asking me to apologise."[18] In an interview with the Radio Times, Wainwright said the level 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 show. Vicky Frost of The Guardian wrote: "To get hung up on the violence of this BBC1 kidnap drama misses the point. It is beautifully written by Sally Wainwright, draws an astonishing performance from Sarah Lancashire—and between them, they have created something truly 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 show 11th on its list of the 100 best TV shows of the 21st century, calling it "a corrective to cliché-ridden and frequently blokey police procedurals", and one that "pulsated with poignant realness".[22]

The final episode of series 3, the final series, garnered much praise from critics. Lucy Mangan, writing for The Guardian, called the episode as "[b]rutal, tender, funny, compelling and heartbreaking"; Anita Singh, reviewing for The Daily Telegraph, rated the episode 5/5 stars and claimed, "Happy Valley sounds so bleak on paper, with its storylines about drugs, rape and murder. But at its core is the love that Cawood has for her family. Wainwright gave us what we wanted: a happy ending for a character who truly deserves it"; Peter Stanford writing in the Telegraph highlighted the various religious themes, with Cawood taking on "the appearance of a living saint" amidst the evil and misery of Happy Valley.[23] Positive reviews were also published by The Times[24] and I, who rated the episode 5/5 stars.[25]

BBC Shop released Happy Valley series one on DVD, in regions two and four, on 16 June 2014. The DVD includes two discs, featuring 351 minutes' worth of footage, and has an age certificate of 15.[34] All six episodes of the series were released on iTunes, both in standard and high definition.[35]

On 20 August 2014, the series was further released on Netflix in Canada and the USA, marketed as a "Netflix Original".[36] However, it departed Netflix in March 2020.[37]

In the summer of 2016, series one of Happy Valley was released on Netflix in the UK and is currently repeated on the channel W. A year later, series two was released on Netflix in the UK.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Happy Valley filming locations.

• Happy Valley at BBC Online
• Happy Valley at IMDb 
• Happy Valley at epguides.com
• Happy Valley, scripts at BBC TV Drama archive