TV preview: Happy Valley

Written by Sally Wainwright, the second series opens with Sergeant Catherine Cawood (Sarah Lancashire) called out to a case of suspected sheep rustling. While investigating possible leads she discovers a decomposed body hidden in a garage on a local estate. Raped and murdered, the victim is someone close to home. All too soon, Catherine finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation.

“A bit of a buzz started to develop as we were filming the first series,” says Wainwright, who is also behind Last Tango in Halifax. “We had an idea we were working on something a bit special, but you don’t like to acknowledge it because you’re scared of tempting fate. I think it was a combination of things that made it work. The stories worked, and we had a caring and hardworking cast and crew.

“I always planned to write another series of Happy Valley. You love your characters and you want to spend more time with them. There’s a thing at the moment that doing a second series is risky, but I think that’s rubbish. It’s when shows get into fifth, sixth, seventh series that the rot tends to set in.”

Happy Valley, Tuesday, BBC1, 9pm.