Happy Valley star Mark Stanley addresses improvisation rumours head on in frank TV interview

Happy Valley star Mark Stanley has praised the show’s creator, Sally Wainwright, in an interview on Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch. Mark plays Ryan Cawood’s abusive PE teacher Rob Hepworth in the smash-hit BBC drama. The character's daughter has a special connection to her jacket and viewers have been theorising why - Read more about that here.

Conversation turned to the writer when host Tim Lovejoy asked: “Is it true Sally doesn't like things improvised? Is that true or is that just a myth?" Mark then replied: "It depends, if it's justified then it's okay, but... you don't need to. You don't need to have stuff added.”

Elaborating on his admiration for Wainwright, Mark added: “Sally [Wainwright's] got such an amazing way of weaving amongst the drama. She's got a way of weaving this northern humour and irony." He wouldn’t be the only person to think so as the writer has won numerous awards for her work on the series.

Read more: BBC Happy Valley's James Norton shares cute throwback with on screen son Ryan

Turning to the popularity of the series, Tim remarked: "Nothing's bigger than Happy Valley though, is it?" I mean, that's the biggest thing on the telly."

"People just absolutely love it," Mark agreed, before explaining how easy it is to get hooked on the drama. "I only watched the first two leading up to my first day of shoot - the first two series.”

Rob Hepworth (BBC/Lookout Point/Matt Squire)

Discussing his character, Mark described how, "he is someone who definitely struggles with control issues." Recent scenes have seen Mark’s character, Rob, discover that his wife Joanna (whom he has been abusing) has been murdered.

Happy Valley continues at 9pm on BBC One on Sunday, January 29. For more TV and showbiz stories, subscribe to our newsletter here.

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