The prestigious BAFTA awards took place last night, and Sally Wainwright’s BBC police drama Happy Valley cleaned up, winning two of the top awards – missing out on two chances that, in our opinion, should have gone to the West Yorkshire drama.
For almost a decade, Catherine Cawood and the gang kept us captivated in a drama that had the coming together of both writing and acting to produce a masterpiece in British Drama. Standout writing from Sally Wainwright and acting from Sarah Lancashire made it what it was. But the show was admittedly an ensemble cast effort with the likes of James Norton as Tommy Lee Royce, and Siobhan Finneran as Claire Cartwright.
BBC drama Happy Valley took home the best actress award, which went to the deserving Sarah Lancashire, who accepted her award, saying: “I feel very, very privileged to have been surrounded by these brilliant actors. Thank you to the BBC for giving this very British drama a very British home.”
The show’s second award was the P&O Cruises Memorable Moment Award for the dramatic conclusion of the series, which saw Sergeant Catherine Cawood’s final showdown with villain Tommy Lee Royce in her kitchen – you couldn’t get a more British setting than that.
The police drama set in Hebden Bridge lost out on the best drama award, which went to Top Boy, and also Siobhan Finneran was up for best supporting actor and lost out. Remarkably, James Norton, playing Tommy Lee Royce, was not nominated for any awards.
Sally Wainwright’s dedication to the drama can be seen by the fact that she waited seven years for Rhys Connah to grow up – so he could play his character Ryan as a teen.
Rhys Connah accepting the P&O Cruises Memorable Moment Award joked: “Thanks to Sally Wainwright for writing that memorable scene where my dad blows himself up in front of my grandma.”
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