---
title: "Happy Valley"
year: 2014
kind: "series"
canonical: "https://film.one/tv/happy-valley-2014"
fi1m_score: 88
critics_score: 79
critics_reviews: 6
published: "2026-09-17T02:21:09.489684+00:00"
updated: "2026-09-17T02:21:38.953709+00:00"
region: "US"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Happy Valley (2014)

Created by Sally Wainwright · 59m · MPA TV-MA · Crime, Drama, Mystery

**Fi1m score: 88** · Critics 79 from 6 reviews

*In a sentence:* The kidnap is badly planned, the valley is beautiful, and the sergeant has seen every kind of stupid

> Sally Wainwright’s West Yorkshire crime drama is built around one of the great television performances, Sarah Lancashire’s Catherine Cawood. The kidnap plot that sets it going is the flimsiest thing in it; everything the plot does to people is written with frightening honesty.

## Synopsis

Sergeant Catherine Cawood (Sarah Lancashire) runs a police shift in a West Yorkshire valley of hills, terraces and small-town trouble. She is divorced and lives with her sister Clare Cartwright (Siobhan Finneran) while raising her grandson Ryan Cawood (Rhys Connah). Tommy Lee Royce (James Norton), a man Catherine has every reason to hate, is back in the valley. Across town, accountant Kevin Weatherill (Steve Pemberton) asks his boss Nevison Gallagher (George Costigan) for money, is refused, and mentions to drug dealer Ashley Cowgill (Joe Armstrong) that Nevison’s daughter Ann Gallagher (Charlie Murphy) would fetch a ransom. Ashley hires Royce and Lewis Whippey (Adam Long) to take her.

## Review

Sally Wainwright has written a kidnap thriller and then spent six hours refusing to let it be one. *Happy Valley* is set among the hills and terraces of West Yorkshire, and it is about a police sergeant, a ransom and a man she has history with. It is really about what grief does to a family over years, and how a decent person carries on going to work while it happens. It is as good as the reviews at the time said and rather better than some of their scores allowed. We would send a stranger to it.

Sarah Lancashire’s Catherine Cawood is the reason. Lancashire delivers the worst facts of Catherine’s life in the flat, brisk voice of a woman filling in a form, and early on we laughed at the delivery, then heard what she had actually said, and stopped. She keeps that double effect going for six episodes. Catherine is funny, bossy, quick on her feet, and there is a hole in the middle of her that she walks around every day. We have not seen many performances on television that manage both at once without a seam showing.

The plot that pulls her out of her routine is the sort of thing that has gone wrong in a hundred films. Kevin Weatherill wants money, his boss Nevison Gallagher says no, and Kevin says something he cannot take back to Ashley Cowgill, a man who sells things he should not. Steve Pemberton plays Kevin as a sweaty bundle of self-pity, a man who thinks of himself as the victim of every consequence he causes, and it is a shrewd piece of casting. The trouble is that the wheels only turn if the men Ashley hires include Tommy Lee Royce, and Wainwright needs that coincidence badly. She does not disguise it. We noticed, and then the writing was good enough that we forgave it, which is not the same as not noticing.

James Norton plays Royce with a soft voice and good manners, and it is the most frightening choice available. He does not snarl. He asks people how they are. Charlie Murphy, as Ann, is given the hardest job in the series, and what happens to her after the first episode we will not describe, except to say that Murphy plays it as a person and not as a plot device, and that the series is careful about the difference. Siobhan Finneran’s Clare is the warmth of the thing, a woman who has made a mess of her life and is quietly astonished to be trusted with a child. Rhys Connah, as Ryan, is allowed to be difficult, which child actors seldom are.

Euros Lyn and Tim Fywell direct the six episodes, and they have agreed on a look: flat grey daylight, wet stone, a valley shot from above so the houses look like they have slid down the hillside and stopped. Nothing is lit to be handsome. The violence, when it comes, is short, clumsy and permanent. People do not get up. What got at us most was not any single act but the waiting afterwards, in kitchens and hospital corridors, where the series sits with the people it has hurt for far longer than the genre usually bothers to.

Each episode runs 59 minutes and none of them drags, though the middle two lean hard on the mechanics of the ransom and we found ourselves wanting to be back in Catherine’s kitchen. The comparison most critics reached for is [*Fargo*](https://film.one/film/fargo), an ordinary man’s bad idea rolling downhill, and it is fair as far as it goes. This is bleaker and less amused by itself, and the police work is closer to social work than to detection. It is also very much a series about women dealing with the wreckage men leave. Two further series followed, in 2016 and 2023, six episodes each; they are worth having and we will say nothing about them here.

Watch two at a time and no more; it is not a series to binge cheerfully. The 15 certificate is honest, and so is the title, in the way that only a policewoman’s joke could be.

*Fi1m score 88, published 17 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

Every review in is positive, and they agree on why. Sarah Lancashire’s Catherine Cawood is the reason most critics give first: a police sergeant who is tough and damaged at once, and who carries the series on her shoulders. Sally Wainwright’s writing comes a close second, praised for characters who behave like real people in a real West Yorkshire town, and for a kidnapping plot that hooks quickly and follows the violence through to its consequences. Several reviews also single out the supporting cast, Steve Pemberton and James Norton in particular, and Euros Lyn’s use of the setting.

The reservations are few and mild. The Times admires the finale and the acting but has less time for the hostage plot as a device, finding it the weakest strand. The spread is narrow, running from good to excellent rather than from good to bad, with the warmest reviews calling it the drama of the year to beat and the cooler ones simply confident and well made.

### Reviews we read (6)

- **Radio Times**, Jack Seale (90/100, inferred): The series is the best drama of the year so far, a word-of-mouth hit that balances real and extreme elements in a gripping thriller with believable characters. It stands out for its sharply drawn normalcy, consequences of violence, and standout performance by Sarah Lancashire as the damaged hero Catherine Cawood. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/why-happy-valley-is-the-drama-of-the-year-so-far/)
- **Variety**, Brian Lowry (80/100, inferred): Netflix's acquisition delivers a terrifically off-kilter British thriller with a tightly constructed kidnapping plot and sharply drawn characters that hook viewers quickly. Performances are first-rate, especially Sarah Lancashire conveying toughness and vulnerability, making it an off-the-beaten-track gem. [Read](https://variety.com/2014/digital/reviews/tv-review-happy-valley-1201283785/)
- **The Guardian** (70/100, inferred): The review praises Sally Wainwright's confident new drama as a melding of her previous works that turns into something like Fargo, with believable character descent into crime and strong performances from Sarah Lancashire and Steve Pemberton. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2014/apr/29/mr-drews-school-for-boys-happy-valley-tv-review)
- **The Times**, Andrew Billen (****): The finale is triumphant with superbly harrowing writing and performance from Sarah Lancashire as Catherine, though the hostage plot device is not fully admired; all characters are flawed but the acting and writing stand out. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-radio/article/tv-review-happy-valley-spjfvcj09b6)
- **Digital Spy**, Alex Fletcher (90/100, inferred): The review positions the series as potentially the best TV show of the year so far, praising its cathartic resolution, rich characters, and unflinching exploration of themes like drugs, family, rape, and social decay. It highlights Sarah Lancashire's towering performance and the believable villainy of James Norton's character. [Read](https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/a575390/happy-valley-review-was-it-the-best-tv-show-of-the-year-so-far/)
- **Den of Geek**, Patrick Sproull (80/100, inferred): The critic calls the series quite excellent and a delicious concoction that balances dry humour with heartfelt moments. They single out Sarah Lancashire's compelling performance as the flinty lead Catherine and the effective use of the West Yorkshire setting by director Euros Lyn. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/happy-valley-episode-1-review/)

## Details

- **Created by:** Sally Wainwright
- **Creator:** Sally Wainwright
- **Director:** Euros Lyn, Tim Fywell
- **Writer:** Sally Wainwright
- **Producer:** Karen Lewis
- **Cast:** Sarah Lancashire as Catherine Cawood; Siobhan Finneran as Clare Cartwright; James Norton as Tommy Lee Royce; Rhys Connah as Ryan Cawood; Charlie Murphy as Ann Gallagher; Karl Davies as Daniel Cawood; Shane Zaza as Shafiq Shah; Joe Armstrong as Ashley Cowgill
- **Runtime:** 59m
- **Certificate (MPA):** TV-MA
- **Release (the US):** 29 April 2014
- **Genres:** Crime, Drama, Mystery
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXdBMaocR_E

## Where to watch in the US

- BritBox: streaming, hd
- The Roku Channel: add-on, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: add-on
- Apple TV: add-on, hd
- Apple TV: buy, sd
- Amazon Prime Video: buy, hd

*Checked 2026-09-17.*

Also available in: AT, AU, CA, DE, DK, FI, FR, GB, IN, NO, SE, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## Awards

- Golden Nymph for Best European Drama TV Series 2015: Golden Nymph for Best European Drama TV Series (won)

## If you liked this

- *Fargo* (1996), Fi1m 91: The same shape: a small man’s stupid idea, and the good woman who cleans it up. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/fargo.md)
- *Prime Suspect* (1991): Helen Mirren’s Jane Tennison, the British television policewoman everyone since has been measured against.
- *Top of the Lake* (2013): A detective, a missing girl and a valley full of men who would rather she went away.
- *The Killing* (2007): Danish, slow and knitted; one case, one grieving family, twenty days of it.
- *Last Tango in Halifax* (2012): Wainwright and Lancashire again, this time in love rather than in uniform.

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/happy-valley-2014