Day 595: Numpty

It's numpty city in my world at the moment. Every time, and I really mean every single time that I send myself a text, and it arrives at my phone with its little magical shaker sound, I am suddenly delighted, and all memory of having hit Send less than a second before has gone from my mind. Gone. Completely. 

All for me

This fact tells me a number of things. One: I'm totally conditioned to react to that sound with curiosity, pleasure and a little rush of significance. Two: It would be cunning of me to work out which bit of software is a notes program on this particular phone, which I've had now for well over a month, possibly closer to two. Or to download one. It would take countable seconds. Less than the length of time than it takes me to make a cup of tea (and god knows I do that enough times in a day). Three: I am a natural born numpty, born, in face, in the village of Little Numpting in the county of Whatareyayou'reaNumpty. And even there, I am renowned for the depth of my Numpthood. I am the supreme Numpty. They pray to me, they do, that they might be blessed with even just a taste of my level of numpt. They haven't got a chance!

Siobhan Finneran

Sooooo... Happy Valley. Iiiisss iiiittt? It so is. Anyone watching it? I know I am. In fact, it's kind of taken over my life a little bit, or at least certain parts of my head. If you don't know it, get onto BBCiPlayer and check it the fuck out. Start from the beginning. Avoid IMDB and any summary website (even the BBC website) to make sure you don't spoil yourself and then get your face round that. 

Beautifully written, beautifully played. All the people you see a lot of are (to me, at least) entirely believable and entirely compelling and I want more of them. It's one of those, like The Killing and The Bridge, where I find myself totally engaged between episodes, and where it creeps into my conscious mind for a bit of a dabble whenever it likes. I reckon it's working overtime in the depths. And it takes me back 'home', to the hills I grew up in (or near them), for which I rarely feel nostalgia, but they are darkly beautiful and a pleasure to look at and be in again for a while.

Joe Armstrong, Steve Pemberton, Adam Long

There's been a bit of a furore (has there? it's a great word but I'm not sure it's accurate) about how much violence there is towards women in it. Hmmmm. Well, yes, there is. There's a lot of violence towards women, and of course it raises the old question about sexual violence (a question that that Angelina Jolie off of Hollywood is fronting in an event to End Sexual Violence in Conflict in June). It's an easy way to hurt a person, a woman especially. It's not exclusively done to women, but of course it's more prevalent in the world to attack women that way than men, and simple biology (the average size of men and women, how women are made, physically, how men are) mean that it's an easier possibility. It's more obvious. 

When you look at the show, though (and I promise not to be too specific) the violence is not simply against women and it's not committed by all (or very many) men. Most of the men in the show never lift a finger in violence, and the writing is so good that I can run them through a million situations in their real actual lives and conclude that they just wouldn't. Some of the violence is committed, and initiated, by women. What's good about the particular violence shown in this incredibly skilful series is that it's horrible. It's not throwaway or inconsequential - it hurts to watch - it hurts me and it appalls most of the characters, men and women alike. It's also the not-shown that's so ugly. I come away and I'm thinking about it... about what it means and what the impact is. It's strong in my mind because it matters, and it's shown to matter, not treated as 'the norm' or in any way ok.

Sarah Lancashire

And the main women, whether helpless in certain situations or not, are not victims; even those whose circumstance makes them so. They're reasonable, principled, human, strong women, who suffer and show it and make decisions and cope sometimes and other times not, but who are determined and on purpose, and that, among other things, is what keeps me coming back. And there are those who are just as flawed and weak and part of the problem as the men who are (and not those who aren't). I'm watching these people, all of them, being flawed and being brilliant, sometimes both at the same time, and I'm wanting things for them and feeling
pain and love and relief and confusion and fear as they do.

So anyway, that's my lot. Thank you, Sally Wainwright - your writing is exquisite and episode 4, which I believe you directed, had me completely gripped, every second of the way. And thank you, Sarah Lancashire, Siobhan Finneran, George Costigan, Derek Riddell, Sophie Rundle, Steve Pemberton doing a brilliant turn, Charlie Murphy, James Norton. I'm in.

Oh, and this is beautiful. No relevance.