Unmissable show?
Sherlock. I think it’s so well shot and so well acted, and the modern setting is a stroke of genius. I think it’s something like another 18 months until the next series; come 2017 I’m going to be sitting there with my snacks waiting to see they’ve come up with.
Earliest TV memory?
I’ve been acting in TV since I was five, so making TV was one of my earliest memories. I did a TV film called Some Kind Of Life with Jane Horrocks and Ray Stevenson, and it was written by Kay Mellor. At the time I was too young to appreciate it, but I look back now and go: “What an opportunity!”
Bring back…
I’ve been rewatching Star Trek: The Next Generation. I’m working in Ireland at the minute and the flight over is the exact length of an episode. If they brought it back, it would have to be all the original cast – Patrick Stewart as Picard, Jonathan Frakes as Riker. And I would happily be a young redshirt who gets killed off within seconds.
Pitch us a TV show…
I’d love to make a warts-and-all rugby league documentary. I support Leeds Rhinos, and I know a lot of the players and the staff, and I’m fortunate that I’ve been on the inside. I think there’s so many stories there. It’s a demanding, brutal sport. It’s not just 80 minutes of thick northerners running into each other. There’s so much more to it than that.
Mastermind specialist subject?
I’ve been on Mastermind, and did Oasis. But if I was to do it again, I’d choose the life and times of Alan Partridge. My brother and I queued up in Piccadilly Waterstones to get our I, Partridge books signed. He was doing it in character, and it was the one opportunity we’d ever have to meet Alan Partridge. He recognised me and broke character to say that his daughter’s a big fan of Harry Potter. I went: “Oh, Denise? [Alan’s estranged daughter]” And Coogan went: “Er, oh yes”. He wanted to be Steve with me, but I demanded Partridge!
Happy Valley returns on Tuesday, 9pm, BBC1
