Tuesday 9th
HAPPY VALLEY, BBC1, 9pm
I take my job title literally: as a TV critic I am indeed critical. I frequently criticise and rarely find something to wildly rave about but, at last, here is such a programme.
Happy Valley is a police drama but not like all the others: it’s not set in London and nor does it feature car chases, dangerous affairs and tormented male detectives.
It’s set in small-town Yorkshire, on the edge of the moors. It should be an idyllic place but the Calder Valley has been ruined by drugs. Beside the hills and the sheep we have grim council estates, vandalism and burnt-out cars and it seems like the only person with the will and the guts to challenge the decline is local police officer Catherine Cawood, but she’s no prim authoritarian trying to implement rules and laws. Instead, she swears and sighs and rolls her eyes; she’s rough and sardonic and comes home exhausted to snap at her sister.
The new series opens 18 months after the last, and Tommy Lee Royce, shaven-headed and in a grey tracksuit, is serving his sentence but he receives bad news which stirs up his hatred of Catherine again and so he sends someone to spy on her and his young son, Ryan. However, Catherine has other worries, when her discovery of a body places her as a murder suspect.
THE DOCKLANDS BOMB: EXECUTING PEACE, BBC4, 10pm
Clever title. This tells the story of the 1996 Docklands Bombing in London which brought an end to the IRA’s 17-month ceasefire. As politicians and communities worked towards peace in Northern Ireland the IRA attempted to wreck the delicate process with a bomb, killing two people, putting 39 in hospital and causing £100 million of damage.
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