Darkness dripped from every scene in Happy Valley, as the desperate battle between good and evil that pitted Sergeant Catherine Cawood against her nemesis Tommy Lee Royce in the bleak Yorkshire countryside played out over three series of the peerless crime drama.
When we’d all caught our breaths after last year’s shocking finale, the big question was how its creator Sally Wainwright might follow such a success.
The answer arrives on Disney+ this week with her latest series Renegade Nell – a family show so fresh and imaginative it belongs in a genre all of its own.
Originally written as a play for her Cotswolds amateur dramatics group many years ago, it’s a feminist fantasy superhero folk tale about a female highwayman with special powers bestowed upon her by a sprite called Billy Blind.
It takes in class war, slavery, black magic and a miscarriage of justice, but more than anything else it’s a rip-roaring historical romp.
Renegade Nell is due to be on Disney+ this week – a family show so fresh and imaginative it belongs in a genre all of its own
Louisa Harland, who stars as the daring Nell, played Orla in Derry Girls (left)
And set alongside Happy Valley and Sally’s other hits – the bittersweet romance Last Tango In Halifax and the ground-breaking costume drama Gentleman Jack – Renegade Nell further demonstrates just what a supremely versatile writer she is.
‘I love this world Sally’s created and I hope it goes down well because I like the idea that the whole family can sit down and watch it,’ says Derry Girls star Louisa Harland, who plays the daring Nell.
‘I feel like it’s a new world we’ve created and apart from a line of historical accuracy, we can do whatever we want. Sally is rewriting history a little bit and that’s what’s lovely about the show.’
We meet our heroine Nell in 1705 while she’s heading home to see her family in London after her soldier husband was killed during one of the countless wars of the era. She’s dressed as a soldier for her own protection, but when she’s accosted by highwaymen and identified as a woman her life appears in danger – until a light enters her body and suddenly she’s able to dodge bullets, jump on top of carriages, become invisible and basically save the day.
Back at home our cockney heroine soon gets into another fight, with Thomas Blancheford (Jake Dunn), the bullying son of the local squire.
Once again, just as it appears that she’s in really big trouble, something strange happens and she acquires the superpowers to beat him off.
Blancheford takes his revenge on Nell’s father and frames Nell for his murder. Forced into hiding with her two sisters, Nell becomes a highwayman – but of the Robin Hood sort. ‘Nell is an ethical thief,’ says Louisa. ‘Everything is for the greater good.’
Darkness dripped from every scene in Happy Valley , as the desperate battle between good and evil that pitted Sergeant Catherine Cawood (pictured) against her nemesis Tommy Lee Royce
Thankfully she has Billy Blind (Ted Lasso’s Nick Mohammed) to give her superhuman strength, which she needs even more when she discovers fate has put her on the wrong side of the law for a reason, involving a magical plot against Queen Anne.
Just like Gentleman Jack’s Anne Lister, Nell prefers men’s clothes, and Louisa says it’s easy to see why.
‘She dresses like a man because it’s easier to get around, to ride a horse. It was awful for women then. It’s crazy how you needed to present yourself as a woman, how much class came into it. I’m glad I wasn’t born at that time.’
However, Nell also needed to look authentic. ‘Our hair and make-up designer would say, ‘Nell’s been on horseback for months, she needs to look like she smells. I need her to look like Tom Hanks in Cast Away.’
Louisa also had to suppress her native Dublin accent, and luckily she was living in London when she got the role, so she talked to the locals. ‘I’d lived in the East End for two years,’ she laughs. ‘Unbeknownst to me I was preparing for the role.
‘Nell does accents and I found that fun, playing someone who’s cockney pretending to do a Scottish accent, a bad one. When she slips, it has to be back into cockney. I thought of those scenes like a music score. My brain was exhausted at the end of the day.’
Nell prefers men’s clothes, and Louisa says it’s because it’s ‘easier to get around and ride a horse’
It seems highwaymen are back in fashion, with another new series, The Completely Made-Up Adventures Of Dick Turpin, starring Noel Fielding, on Apple TV+. But while super-heroes on TV are ten a penny, there’s never been one who owes her powers to a sprite, an idea that came from ancient folklore. ‘He was a creature who lived under a girl’s bed and protected her,’ says Louisa.
‘He can be described in different ways – a sprite, an imp – and it’s a bit cringe, but I think it’s like a soulmate. We had to get Billy right because it’s a strange concept.
‘Nick Mohammed is perfect. I didn’t have him around in person because he can’t fly and he can’t fit in my pocket – I had to talk to my imaginary friend which was frustrating, but made it even more magical when I got to see the finished product.’
The eight-part series may be just the start of Nell’s adventures. ‘Sally’s so great at writing for women, writing truthful characters and relationships,’ says Louisa.
‘Put that into a fun world with magic, fantasy and epic fight sequences, and it’s all of the above.’
- Renegade Nell, from Good Friday, Disney+.
Five more must-see Sally Wainwright dramas
HAPPY VALLEY (BBC iPlayer)
An utterly absorbing drama pitting Sarah Lancashire’s police officer Catherine Cawood against evil Tommy Lee Royce, the man who raped her daughter Becky and left her bringing up her grandson after Becky’s suicide.
James Norton’s mesmerising performance as Royce made him a household name, and last year’s third and final series had the nation on the edge of its seat.
LAST TANGO IN HALIFAX (BBC iPlayer)
Derek Jacobi and Anne Reid play Celia and Alan (below), widowed and in their 70s, who failed to admit their feelings for one another in the 1950s, and have a lot of catching up to do over five series.
Derek Jacobi and Anne Reid play Celia and Alan failed to admit their feelings for each other in the 50s in Last Tango in Halifax
Suranne Jones gives a BAFTA-nominated performance as landowner and industrialist Anne Lister in Gentleman Jack
GENTLEMAN JACK (BBC iPlayer)
Suranne Jones gives a BAFTA-nominated performance as landowner and industrialist Anne Lister. Over two series, she transforms her late uncle’s estate while also seeking love with wealthy heiress Ann Walker (Sophie Rundle).
AT HOME WITH THE BRAITHWAITES (ITVX)
Some people shout it from the rooftops when they win the lottery, but not Alison Braithwaite. Played by Amanda Redman, she reckons her £38 million windfall could have a detrimental effect on her family so she keeps quiet about it at first. Four series ran in the early 2000s, with Peter Davison as Alison’s cheating husband David.
SCOTT AND BAILEY (ITVX Premium and BritBox)
Britain’s answer to Cagney And Lacey saw police detectives Janet Scott (Lesley Sharp) and Rachel Bailey (Suranne Jones) fighting crime together on the streets of Manchester while also dealing with a succession of crises in their personal lives over its five series.
