Catherine Cawood is a determined police sergeant in her grim small UK town of Yorkshire. She’s haunted by the suicide of her daughter, a victim of rape who gave birth to Catherine’s grandson before ending her life. When her daughter’s rapist gets released from prison, she’s determined to keep him away from his son and driven to find any reason to put him back behind bars.
Buy Happy Valley: Series One DVDMeanwhile, a middle-aged accountant is struggling with making ends meet due to his two daughters enrolling in private school. When his wealthy boss initially refuses to give him a raise to help out, and he subsequently stumbles across a drug deal while on a family getaway, he offers the shady dealer a plan to kidnap his boss’s daughter for shared ransom.
It’s no surprise that the two storylines intersect, but creator and writer Sally Wainwright (Last Tango in Halifax) constructs a masterful collision that drags all of the principal players into a riveting showdown. The linchpin is the newly released rapist, Tommy Lee Royce (James Norton), assigned by his new boss, the dealer, to carry out the kidnapping. The dealer doesn’t know how unstable Tommy is, unaware that his easy access to a captive college-age girl after a lengthy imprisonment is all the enticement he needs to let his dark side run free. Tommy also has no clue he’s a dad, but when he finds out, he’s obsessed with attempting to meet the boy while also avoiding Catherine.
All of the characters are miserable throughout the series, and yet the show is wildly entertaining. After the initial setup, it’s a binge-worthy dash to the thrilling conclusion, with plenty of pitfalls along the way. The only thing that didn’t really work for me was Catherine’s live-in sister, a tacked-on character who serves very little purpose in Series One so naturally grinds things to a halt whenever she enters a scene. Catherine has plenty of family drama without her, thanks to Catherine’s resentful adult son, ingrate grandson, and still affectionate but taken ex-husband, with him refusing to engage with or even acknowledge his grandson due to his unwelcome origin.
Sarah Lancashire is exceptional in the difficult lead role, thoroughly plumbing the depths of her character’s ongoing depression about her daughter’s death, her resignation to the daily grind of police work and single parenthood, and her unrelenting drive for justice. James Norton is an imposing presence as Tommy Lee Royce, exuding ominous danger until late in the game when some real emotion rises to the surface. In a surprising dramatic turn, veteran British comedy icon Steve Pemberton (The League of Gentlemen, Inside No. 9) plays it straight as the nebbish accountant who sets the whole kidnapping scheme in motion, riding the rest of the series on waves of increasing panic as the plan spirals out of control.
The new DVD set collects the six-episode Series One across two discs. However, its mere existence is a bit of a mystery, because the 2014 series was previously released on U.S. DVD a decade ago and is still easily obtainable. In fact, here’s our 2015 review of the prior DVD. This reissue doesn’t seem to change anything other than the cover art. Also, its labelling is very deceptive for buyers with a poor eye for detail, since there is no mention anywhere on the packaging that this is only Series One. Aside from the listed runtime of 352 minutes, there’s absolutely no clue for the many unhappy buyers who are going to pick this up assuming it’s the complete three-season series, only to later discover it’s just the first season.
If you haven’t made time yet to visit the Valley, the new DVD set provides an easy path to finally get around to Series One. Just be aware that you’ll most certainly want to track down the subsequent series, which thankfully remain available for purchase in the U.S. from their original releases.
