Happy Valley

[jwdd27]

Finished tonight.

Gruelling but compelling and a fantastic piece of work.

Sally Wainwright has the rare ability of writing dialogue the way people actually speak, not the way they speak on TV. It's a pity all her male characters are incompetent and or malevolent.

Sarah Lancashire was far from my favourite actress before, but she is absolutely brilliant in this. Not sure if there is a book on next year's BAFTAs, but she's a dead cert.

And to top it off, it's set in my part of the world, albeit over the border in Calderdale. Funny buggers round those parts.

[E10 Rifle]

Happy Valley

Yeah there was some cracking West Yorkshire porn in amid all the misery. It was extraordinarily compelling though wasn't it? Hadn't really expected to get sucked in, but it became a bit of a must-watch. And in the last episode, the dark internal family stuff was, if anything, more central than the 'catching-the-killer' plot.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Happy Valley

The missus and I are currently half way through the second series of Last Tango in Halifax, which is excellent, by the same writer (and with significant cast overlap). Also set and filmed in glorious West Yorkshire with occasional forays into nearby parts of North Yorkshire (so all West Riding in old money).

[jwdd27]

Happy Valley

Although they shared little or no screen time, Happy Valley also reunited Siobhan Finneran (Claire) and George Costigan (Nevison), who were of course Rita and Bob in the 1980s West Yorkshire/Thatcher's Britain classic, Rita, Sue and Bob too.

I too was a late convert to Sally Wainwright - wasn't keen on Scott and Bailey because I thought it was just Cagney and Lacey UK (for one thing, Cagney and Lacey was actually very good, and for another S&B is far better than that). Also hated the title of Last Tango... plus the way it was initially marketed as an OAP romance/comedy. I thought it was aiming for the Last of the Summer Wine market... perhaps the BBC thought they were.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

All finishes tonight then. Signora Rogin and I have binged-watched all three series to date over the last fortnight, so we're on tenterhooks. Will there be more carnage, or shall they all just sit down and have a nice pot of Yorkshire tea?

[Tony C]

Happy Valley

The missus and I are currently half way through the second series of Last Tango in Halifax, which is excellent, by the same writer (and with significant cast overlap). Also set and filmed in glorious West Yorkshire with occasional forays into nearby parts of North Yorkshire (so all West Riding in old money).

Wainwright also wrote the excellent ‘Gentleman Jack’, again set in Halifax and involving an outstanding female lead performance - Suranne Jones on this occasion.

[E10 Rifle]

I liked Last Tango in Halifax too - gentler-paced and less hard-hitting than either GJ or HV but still astutely written and well put together

[Sits]

It’s on today on Foxtel who have the live streaming rights here, so almost everyone else will be watching it now.

We don’t have Foxtel so will have to wait 24 hours to see it on BBC First.

[Lobachevsky]

Brilliantly done last episode. Thought that the wrapping up of the chemists murder undone as that had the feel of just tidying things up.

Cast was outstanding.

[E10 Rifle]

I wish they'd gone in a bit deeper on the pharmacist and Hepworth storylines, especially as they set them up so strongly and well earlier in the series. Felt like those compelling subplots just tailed off too much. Though the Catherine/Tommy scenes were of course brilliantly done.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

SPOILER ALERT

******
******
******



If you were to taser someone doused in petrol, would it set them on fire?

[Sean of the Shed]

I wish they'd gone in a bit deeper on the pharmacist and Hepworth storylines, especially as they set them up so strongly and well earlier in the series. Felt like those compelling subplots just tailed off too much. Though the Catherine/Tommy scenes were of course brilliantly done.

*SPOILERS*
Yeah, that had an "oh, by the way" vibe that could at least have been given a bit more dedicated time.
The self-immolation at the end was a bit of a B movie budget job, and it wouldn't have affected the story or character profile had he decided to jib out of doing it.
Other than that, though, a satisfying ending as opposed to, say, Line of Duty.

[Lobachevsky]

I kinda like the idea of the husband being wrongfully charged and the chemist managing to get away Scott free from his wrongdoings having blundered in way over his head.

the blundering wrongdoing has been a theme in all three seasons as one character or another has ineptly set about serious crime without understanding how to it through.

[Nesta]

Other than that, though, a satisfying ending as opposed to, say, Line of Duty.

Not that I followed Line of Duty religiously, but wasn't the whole point of the ending to be unsatisfying

[Tony C]

I liked that the dialogue in the climactic scene was so unpolished - stumbling over words, repetitive and pointless swearing, which reflects my experience of seeing highly confrontational situations.

[E10 Rifle]

The unresolved ending to Line of Duty was the point. In the real world of police corruption and organised crime, the bad guys at the top keep on keeping on.

One other juicy Happy Valley subplot was Darius's political ambitions and his winning of dodgy council contracts. You could do a whole spin-off on that, proper series-three-of-The-Wire territory.

[DPDPDPDP]

Finished watching it last night. Very, very good..

[Sits]

Yes, likewise. The kitchen scene we agreed was some of the best acting - and scripting we’ve ever seen on TV.

All in all a quite brilliant eighteen episodes and they’re right not to outstay the welcome.

[slackster]

For those that have watched S3, this is a gem. If you haven’t, there’s spoilers.

[URL="https://twitter.com/kieranchodgson/status/1623589398422904832?s=61&t=ZFixOteFb6xb9cBNH02rOw"]https://twitter.com/kieranchodgson/s...b6xb9cBNH02rOw[/URL]