You know you are enjoying a programme when you glance over at the clock and curse the fact that that there is only thirty minutes left of it. You know you are watching a truly exceptional programme when you glance over at the clock once again later on, wishing that the episode wasn’t nearly over. This is how I felt about the fourth episode of Happy Valley last night. I wanted to watch the next episode straight away, did not want to have to wait a further week to see the next enthralling instalment.

Although I thought episode three was great, I also thought it was probably the weakest of the second series so far. It gripped me me without ever blowing me away like some of the other episodes have.  I contrast this with episode four because I think this is the strongest episode of the second series thus far.  The narrative development was intriguing, direct yet also at the same time beautifully subtle in places.  I was sat there watching it last night and for a second became self aware of just what a privilege it felt to be witnessing such a wonderful piece of television.  I was concentrating so hard because I wanted to fully absorb everything that writer Sally Wainwright was offering to us.  The marvelous acting, the emotive music and the fantastic multi layered plot, these are the reasons why this drama is one of the best things that I have ever seen in my entire life.

What I love about Happy Valley is how unconventional it is at times, in terms of it being a crime drama.  With regards to the prostitute serial killer story, I loved how the culprit was caught in episode four and yet there are still two episodes left to air.  I am bored to tears with other shows in this genre that painstakingly pad out catching the killer right up until the very end of the series.  I therefore liked how Happy Valley got ‘straight down to business’ in my viewing last night. Sally Wainwright can have suspected killer Sean Balmforth arrested so early on because her engrossing multi layered narrative means there is still so much left to reveal to us yet.

Away from the serial killer story, the action was largely centred around it being Ryan’s birthday and all the fallout of him receiving an extravagant present from his Dad(the psychopath Tommy Lee Royce who is in jail for committing rape and murder).  Tommy’s weird obsessive lady friend Frances had bought it him however, hoping it would help drive a wedge between Ryan and his grandma Catherine(Sarah Lancashire). Young actor Rhys Connah who plays Ryan, gave a fantastic performance of a naive young kid who only sees the world in simple terms.

In jail we saw actor James Norton who plays evil Tommy Lee Royce, at his mesmerizing menacing best once again. He was not that impressed by Frances buying Ryan a birthday present from him.  He needed more from her he demanded. He wants unhinged Frances to exact his ultimate revenge on Catherine(it rhymes with ‘BILL HER’) and I for one cannot wait to see how the action pans out in the remaining two episodes.

Regarding the murder of Vicky Fleming, DS John Wadsworth continued to be an emotional wreck yet also somehow just manage to hold it together at work.  I sense the net will be soon be closing in on him though.  I think it is a brilliant acting by Kevin Doyle as John, having not seen him in anything else before this.  I think his character’s imminent demise will somehow be linked to us finding out in this episode that Clare’s(Catherine’s sister) boyfriend Neil, also had an affair with Vicky Fleming in the past and was also blackmailed by her.  Again, it was great storytelling and acting by all those involved.

I also loved the subtlety of the writing and acting in this episode concerning the character Ann Gallagher(played by Charlie Murphy).  Ann was very introverted in this episode and it was no doubt linked to John not turning up for their date the week before.  Given that she is a rape victim then I thought this was really well written and handled by Sally Wainwright. I thought Charlie played Ann’s sensitiveness to this issue superbly well.  I  found her sudden reserved demeanor rather moving to watch.

That just about covers my review of episode four then. Already I am dreading life without Happy Valley in three weeks time. I want every Tuesday night to be a Happy Valley night but I guess as poet Geoffrey Chaucer once wrote, “All good things must come to an end”! 5/5.