She’s the Huddersfield-born woman who kept millions of us glued to our TV screens for weeks on end.
Now writer and producer Sally Wainwright, who brought gritty TV police drama Happy Valley to life, is to be honoured by her home town.
She will receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Huddersfield as one of a varied list that includes a celebrated lawyer, a ground-breaking musician and a well-loved television personality.
Ms Wainwright is the creator of many hit TV dramas, several of which have been set and filmed in the Huddersfield and Halifax area. They include Scott & Bailey, Last Tango in Halifax and the acclaimed Happy Valley, starring Sarah Lancashire – who herself received an honorary award from the University in 2009.
The second series of Happy Valley, revolving around the tough but troubled Sgt Catherine Cawood, concluded in March, and drew up to eight million viewers for its tense finale.
Which was better, Happy Valley series one or series two?
Happy Valley
The writing career of Ms Wainwright, born in Huddersfield in 1963, began with scripts for The Archers and Coronation Street. In 2000, she wrote her first original series At Home with the Braithwaites. It was screened worldwide and earned many award nominations.
She will receive her Honorary Doctorate in July.
Among those joining her will be the TV presenter and technology pioneer Maggie Philbin. She came to fame as one of the Tomorrow’s World team, and she has followed this with a sequence of informative programmes that include BBC 1’s Bang Goes the Theory.
She has also headed up the BBC’s Digital Switchover and created an interactive science and engineering initiative TeenTech, which now runs across the UK and reaches over 5,000 teenagers directly every year.
An honour will also go to Michael Mansfield QC, who has been a barrister for almost 50 years and is widely known for cases involving civil liberties and miscarriages of justice. He has represented families of people killed in the Hillsborough disaster and the family of murder victim Stephen Lawrence.
Clients have also included the Birmingham Six, falsely accused of a pub bombing.
Other honorary degrees will go to:
Evan Parker, a saxophonist renowned as a British pioneer of free jazz, who has performedat the world-renowned Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival.
American-born designer and artist Kaffe Fassett, who settled in the UK in the 1960s, has a global reputation in the fields of knitting, needlepoint and patchwork. He has produced over 30 publications and also tours internationally giving workshops, lectures and museum exhibitions.
Dr Julie Maxton, Executive Director of the Royal Society and the first woman in 350 years to hold the post. Before this, she was Registrar at the University of Oxford, the first woman in 550 years in the role.
Naomi Climer, President and Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology. Before this, she was President of Sony’s global division Media Cloud Services, based in Los Angeles, with a mission to develop cloud based services for all parts of the media industry worldwide.
