Happy Valley Series 2

Yes, Catherine is to the Calder Valley what Morse ( and now Lewis) is to Oxford.Bodies pile up , the more the merrier.

Another place to avoid when house-hunting
Too dangerous!

Catherine reminds me a lot of Jane Tennison of Prime Suspect. I just can't imagine Catherine being cuddly. But she's compassionate and caring ss well as tough and imho flawed too. Great character.

It's not so far-fetched though when you remember that Peter Sutcliffe killed at least 13 women in the area over 4 or 5 years not long ago (well, it doesn't seem that long ago to those of us who lived through the fear).

Yorkshire Ripper murders must've been terrifying for women living in the area. I remember the "Reclaim the Night" marches. And yes, there was one in Halifax, wasn't there? In Savile Park? Interesting how, after all the resources and the false lead, Sutcliffe was caught when a suspicious copper thought he heard a clink when Sutcliffe was having a pee and went back to check....

Yes, Josephine Whitaker was killed there. And Olive Smelt was attacked, but survived. She always insisted that her attacker had a Yorkshire accent, but the police were taken in by the Wearside Jack tape. I was interviewed at the time about my family as I lived in the area but hailed from the North East. One of the victims was found in the next street to my student flat in Bradford. It was a very scary time all round. And a lot of the police investigation would have been dismissed as too fanciful if it had been presented as a work of fiction.

Gosh, Maggie what a time to live through! I saw a programme quite recently about Olive Smelt -she was in the hairdresser's and explaining how her hair had to be styled in a certain way, due to the attacks. There was another woman too, a teenager at the time-who has since been acknowledged as one of Sutcliffe's first victims. There are probably others, too.

The one thing I remember about the investigation is how the tone of the investigation changed when the teenager in Leeds was murdered. She was not a prostitute, and I remember her being proclaimed as an "innocent" victim; the subtext being that the other victims somehow were....not so innocent?

Maybe it's easy to say with the benefit of hindsight, but the Wesrside Jack element of the investigation seems unbelievable now.

I have just finished watching the series, I prefer to record the lot rather than wait week to week. I enjoyed this series but I did find some accents difficult to understand, Catherine seemed more so this time and I doubt I understood a quarter of what the school teacher said. Bit much that every character had problems , I hope there is another series though

Bit much that every character had problems
Yes, there was no-one 'normal' (whatever normal is), not even her son who had an affair when his wife was having their baby.

I enjoyed the series very much. It seemed to me the stakes were a lot lower this time around, but regardless I still enjoyed it.

I`ve just read a report that says that halfway through filming this second series, Sarah Lancashire says she won`t be reprising the role of Catherine Cawood for a 3rd series. Hope she changes her mind.