Plan B Forum

Anyone who liked Broad Church or The Fall will almost certainly like Happy Valley....

Catherine is a no-nonsense police sergeant who heads up a team of officers in a rural Yorkshire valley. When a staged kidnapping spirals out of control turning into a brutal series of crimes, Catherine finds herself involved in something significantly bigger than her rank, but unknowingly close to home....

An 8.5 IMDB...

It's very well cast and well crafted; with a lot of well designed suspense, as seemingly unconnected threads gradually come together...

It's also a BBC series, which makes it more of a "mini-series" than an actual series... (Two series with only six episodes each; we just finished watching the first one)

The only draw-back is that veteran BBC actress Sarah Lancashire who plays the lead, (and when I say "veteran" I do mean "veteran"...among many other BBC credits she was on Coronation Street for 13 years: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0484104/?ref_=tt_cl_t1)

plays the role with such a thick Yorkshire working-class accent, that when she talks fast it's nearly impossible to understand what she's saying...she might as well be speaking Chinese...

I understand the value of "realism" (and afterall the story is set in Yorkshire) and most of the other actors and actresses use the Yorkshire/Northern accent...

Though not to the point that their lines are unintelligible to the degree that Lancashire's frequently are...

She could have toned it down a bit...

(At the very least when she went into that mode they could have thrown in some sub-titles for the benefit of English speaking viewers... )

Watched that a couple of years back - very good but frustrating because ... well, it's obvious to the viewer but tha' rozzer were slow on the ooptake, like.

LJ, on Netflix you can choose to have subtitles on all selections

I'm gonna watch the new Pee Wee Herman movie tonight.

Interesting Jim. We started watching that, Hen loved it, I found it w-a-a-a-y too PC, (excuse the pun,) for my tastes.

I don't mean to trash Lancashire's performance...

She was excellent as Catherine Cawood...

But when you can't understand a third of what the main protagonist is saying; there's a problem...

LJ, on Netflix you can choose to have subtitles on all selections

Yeah, but that's supposed to be for deaf people...

Not people who can't sort out a Yorkshire accent....

I'm sure people watching the original run on British TV had no problem understanding her, LJ. Utilize the captions - any day now you'll need them anyway for your aged hearing.

I'm sorry...

What did you say?

I worked for Sarah's dad for a while. He was a scriptwriter and his eyesight was failing so he would dictate and I would type straight on to the typewriter for him.

I haven't yet watched either series of HV, I have it on my media server to watch over the summer. I doubt I'll have any issues with understanding the accent

I had no problem with the accents either, Daze, albeit 39 years since I left Blighty. LJ's got that "Tee hee, I can't play volleyball" syndrome usually associated with young ladies with dyed blonde hair and false fingernails.

Also short-term memory loss:

they could have thrown in some sub-titles for the benefit of English speaking viewers

Yeah, but that's supposed to be for deaf people

BTW, while I have to use reading glasses now, (except outside in natural light) my hearing remains excellent...

A fact to which my daughter can attest...

I finally got around to watching Happy Valley now that the third and final season has released. It’s bloody brilliant, one of the best shows I’ve seen in years. Thanks for the recommendation, LJ.