It was very nice of Real Madrid to slaughter Bayern Munich in the first half of their match last night thus avoiding the outbreak of WWIII at 9.00pm at Chateaux Duff when the first episode of Happy Valley on BBC1 was due to begin at nearly the same time as the second half of the 'footie' . Thus, the 'Lord of the Manor', I he needs no introduction, was able to graciously grant permission to switch over to watch this first episode of a police thriller. I was unimpressed with the summary which indicated to me that a) it was British and b) it featured a police woman. Alas, we Brits do some thing passably well but police thrillers, by and large, are not one of them; and don't ask me why but I hardly ever like thrillers with female police officers.
Anyway, I was wrong - big time!
Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm mostly wrong about everything but that's only because I have an opinion on everything and, alas, lack the knowledge to inform most of it! So, having expressed my mea culpa now let me be bossy and tell you all to use your 'pid-pod-pad-thingie', you know, that device which allows you to watch TV programmes long after they have been broadcast, and watch the first episode before next Tuesday when the second episode comes out. And make sure your recorder-thingies are switched on to catch all the subsequent episodes because if they are half as good as the opener this is going to be a five star corker!
I sometimes worry about thriller writers. I mean, they have such diabolically twisted minds - they really ought to be locked up! Even worse, this one is written by a woman - Ms. Sally Wainwright. However, I am happy to vouch for her because according to Wiki she used to be a bus driver and as a former member of that distinguished profession myself I think I can attest to her good sense and sensibility. I can certainly confirm that she is a superb story-teller. She is also one of three directors of this six-part series, so a very multi-talented lady. The acting is impeccable although I should warn my foreign readers, that is, anyone who lives abroad, or south of the River Trent, to use their sub-title feature because the story is set well and truly 'oooop north' and is thus mostly incomprehensible! (Not really, but 'tha' knows wot I mean, lad'!)
Believe me, this is a terrific tale well told and I have all my fingers and toes crossed in hope that it carries on the way it began.
