Millions of people are tuning in each week for the latest installment of Sowerby Bridge-based drama Happy Valley.

The BBC One series, which stars Sarah Lancashire and Steve Pemberton, has won over fans and critics alike with its nail-biting storyline.

Set in Sowerby Bridge, the police drama was partly filmed in Armitage Bridge's North Light Film Studios  and continues tonight at 9pm.

We're sure many of you will be glued to the screen again this week - but until then, here's 20 facts about Happy Valley:

  1. Creator Sally Wainwright has already scored several TV hits - she's the writer behind At Home With the Braithwaites, Unforgiven, Scott & Bailey and Last Tango in Halifax.
     
  2. Last Tango in Halifax, the critically acclaimed drama about two septuagenarian sweethearts, was also filmed around Huddersfield, with scenes shot in Marsden and at Blackley Baptist Church in Elland.
     
  3. Sarah Lancashire, who plays Happy Valley's no-nonsense Sergeant Catherine Cawood, is no stranger to Wainwright's scripts, either - she starred alongside Sir Derek Jacobi, Anne Reid and Nicola Walker in Last Tango in Halifax.
     
  4. Set to return for in the third series, Sarah Lancashire has been nominated for a BAFTA two years on the trot, in 2013 and 2014, for her performance as daughter Caroline in the Halifax-based series.
     
  5. Sally said she wrote the part of Catherine Cawood in Happy Valley with Sarah Lancashire in mind after being 'blown away' by her performance in Last Tango in Halifax.
     
  6. She also directed the fourth episode of the six-part drama herself and said it was a 'brilliant' and 'rewarding' experience.
     
  7. Series star Sarah Lancashire went out with police officers in Calderdale in preparation for the role, and even learned how to correctly put someone in handcuffs.
     
  8. During one of the outings, officers were called to an incident involving bailiffs which turned into a fight - Sarah said she stayed in the van!
     
  9. A police advisor for the series said Sarah Lancashire would make a great police officer as she was "very willing to get stuck in and give it her all".
     
  10. Sarah, originally from Oldham, should be at home with filming in West Yorkshire now - you may remember her from ITV series Where The Heart is, shot in Marsden, Slaithwaite and Meltham.
     
  11. But she was arguably best known as ditzy barmaid Raquel Watts in Coronation Street, a part she played for five years from 1991-1996, with a brief return in 2000.
     
  12. James Norton, who plays sinister criminal Tommy Lee Royce, worked with a psychologist at the Priory in Manchester to learn about psychopaths and get inside Tommy's state of mind.

    James Norton as Tommy Lee Royce in Happy Valley
    James Norton as Tommy Lee Royce in Happy Valley

     
  13. James was already working with Charlie Murphy, who plays kidnap victim Ann Gallagher, when the script for Happy Valley came through.
     
  14. The pair were working on a Viking film called North Men in South Africa - and would discuss the drama while in costume for their parts as a Viking and a Scottish Princess!
     

  15. Steve Pemberton, who plays bumbling accountant Kevin Weatherill, is also used to filming in West Yorkshire - The League of Gentlemen filmed scenes for the Local Shop (for local people) sketches in Marsden.
     
  16. His colleagues, League of Gentlemen writers and performers  Jeremy Dyson, Reece Shearsmith and Mark Gatiss, were awarded honorary degrees from the University of Huddersfield at the town hall in 2006.
     
  17. Episode one of Happy Valley, which aired on April 29, attracted 6.3m viewers.
     
  18. Epsiode two, which aired on Tuesday in the same time slot on BBC One, was watched by 5.4m.
     
  19. The show has attracted comparisons to drawn comparisons to Fargo, the 1996 Coen Brothers film recently made into a Channel Four series starring Martin Freeman.
     
  20. Happy Valley was party shot in the same film studios as Jamaica Inn, Peaky Blinders, Unforgiven, Housewife, 49, and Where The Heart Is - Armitage Bridge's North Light Film Studios.

 

Who needs Hollywood when you've got Huddersfield? Click here to see more TV hits filmed in our backyard.

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