Not only is it pancake day on Tuesday, it's also the day that Happy Valley returns, almost two years after its triumphant first series - yay! Last night I was lucky enough to attend a preview screening of episode one in aid of the Community Foundation for Calderdale who are supporting victims of the recent floods near where the show was filmed in West Yorkshire. Last night's screening raised more than £30,000 for the charity and although there were no pancakes, the lucky few of us in the Victoria Theatre in Halifax were treated to a Q&A with writer, creator and director (Wonder Woman) Sally Wainwright and members of the, frankly tremendous, cast. Don't worry, this post doesn't contain any spoilers from the first ep, but I wanted to share a few of my favourite bits from the evening.
If you missed the first series (catch up now!!) here's a quick run through: Sergeant Catherine Cawood worked the beat in the Calder Valley. She had a complicated family life but she was damn good at her job, handling junkies and drug dealers with an "I've see it all before" attitude. She had underlying concerns that most of the low level crimes she was dealing with stemmed from king pins supplying drugs to the valley. When a local man devised a kidnap plot as a way of getting back at his boss, Sgt. Cawood found herself on the trail of those higher up the criminal chain and heading towards a confrontation with a violent ex-con who had a worrying connection to her family. Though bleak and, at times, unflinchingly violent, Happy Valley couldn't have been more compelling.
Sally Wainwright was joined on the panel by Sarah Lancashire, who has been winning awards for her powerful portrayal of Catherine ever since the first series aired, James Norton, who thankfully couldn't be less like his psychopathic character Tommy, and George Costigan who gave a moving performance as businessman Nevison Gallagher. Alongside them was Amelia Bullmore and Vincent Franklin who are new additions to the cast for series two.
I'm not going to lie, I was a bit starstruck when Sarah came on stage, having just been reminded by the new episode how much I adored her performance in the first series. Thankfully, for those like me who were too awestruck to ask anything, the other audience members had some insightful questions prepared. I was particularly eager to hear Sally and Amelia's responses to a question about writing parts for women. Amelia said that it is something she does consciously when she writes, but she is more concerned with creating parts that actors would want to play, regardless of gender. Refreshingly, she said she'd be just as happy to write a woman who was a mess as she would be writing a strong female character if she felt that it would be a more worthwhile challenge for an actor. Sarah made the point that there is no shortage of fantastic female actors in the UK, however there is a shortage of talented writers to create parts for them. She praised Red Productions who make Happy Valley, for championing great writers and nurturing new talent, something I felt very inspired by.
One of Red's most prolific writers is of course Sally Wainwright, who also created Last Tango in Halifax and Scott and Bailey, both of which are packed with interesting female characters. As I mentioned earlier, Sally's a bit of a Wonder Woman, this time around not only did she write the series, she also directed four of the six episodes. When asked whether she preferred writing or directing, she said she loves writing as it means she doesn't have to go to work and talk to people - something which got a good laugh from the audience - but she prefers directing as she loves being one of the first people to see the actor's performances. Who can blame her?
One of the brilliant performers she's been able to work with is James Norton, who last night had some fascinating insights into his character. He and Sally decided very early on that Tommy is a victim himself. Probably neglected by his mother as a child, he has grown up believing that he has to protect himself from other people, to him, everyone else is a psychopath. And (don't read this part if you haven't seen series one) he interpreted Tommy's attack on his son Ryan as the greatest act of love that Tommy is capable of, as he wanted to remove him from a world he sees as bad. He told Sally it was a beautiful piece of writing. I completely agree.
It was interesting to hear the actors differing approaches to switching off from their roles. Sarah opts to go home and prepare for the next day's filming by reading through her scripts. She finds there's no time to get out of Catherine's head-space as the role is so consuming. James though, finds it necessary to distance himself from his character as some of the things he has to do as Tommy are so dark - he even admitted to having strange dreams while filming the last series. His "switching off" process involves going for a drink at the end of a shoot and having a laugh with his co-stars in between takes. George joked that if he stays in character his wife will say "but I don't want to be married to this man" while Vincent's wife says "I'd prefer to be married to this man".
For fans of Sally's other show Last Tango in Halifax, one of the audience members asked if there could be a cross-over between Sarah's characters. Sally said she could imagine snooty Caroline walking into Catherine's police station -a scene Sarah dared her to write. I'd be more excited to see a cameo from Nicola Walker in Happy Valley.
Despite the best efforts of the audience to wriggle the info out of the panel, there's no news yet on whether there will be a third series. Let's hope so, because judging by the GENIUS first episode, we're going to want more once series two's over. Let's not get too ahead of ourselves though, we've got a full six episodes to enjoy over the coming weeks and I for one, can't wait to see the rest. Tuesday's only three days away!
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