Top 10 TV: #1, Happy Valley 📺

My #1 viewing buddy (humans aside).

Books and stuffed animal plays were my first loves, but I was under three years old when I also informed my parents that TV was “my hobby” – even after they had convinced my brother and I that the knob on our set was broken, so we could only get the not-for-profit educational station (no regrets: Polkaroo for life!).

So here, because absolutely nobody asked me to (unlike the magnificent Guy Vanderhaeghe 😊), is the first of my own top “ten” (-ish), “grown-up” TV shows in the English language.

#1: Happy Valley

As with songs, I can label the #1, but the rest are a 9-way (or 100-way, really) tie for secondish place.  Start to finish, Happy Valley is for me the best storytelling ever made (in English) for television.

Sergeant Catherine Cawood, protagonist of Happy Valley. (Image: BBC1)

Sally Wainwright, the creator and showrunner, is an undisputed genius.  She herself wondered, early on in her career, why she was in the Coronation Street writers’ room – a quiet presence in a place “dominated by the loudest voices, the biggest smells” – until she realised that it was because her stories were just that good. They’re also dark, and they’re deftly funny.

Other ways in which Happy Valley is perfection: outstanding acting, impeccable dialogue, a flawed, brave and utterly loveable hero, fully realised secondary characters who both fail and grow, a gorgeous setting that does its job (building the world and mood, contributing to the plot, serving up a feast for our eyes), heavy irony, flawless pacing – so, gut-wrenching dramatic peaks and no boring bits, but enough quiet room for us to breathe… my favourite moment in TV happens in this show, but I won’t spoil it. I want to, but I won’t.

A masterpiece.  You should watch it, but you probably already have!