Happy Valley viewers have all been publicly apologising to Neil Ackroyd, a central character in the hit BBC drama, after several fan theories fell completely flat.
Once again, if you haven’t watched last night’s finale, please walk away now – spoilers lie ahead.
To recap – Neil Ackroyd, played by the brilliant Con O’Neill, made his first Happy Valley appearance in the show’s second series.
He was a recovering alcoholic whose wife had left him, and took up a position working in the local corner shop.
It was there that he met Clare Cartwright (Siobhan Finneran), who is the sister of the drama’s main character Catherine Cawood (Sarah Lancashire).
ADVERTISEMENT
The pair quickly strike up a romantic relationship, which carries on throughout the show.
Neil really landed himself in trouble during this final season, when it emerged that he had been taking Ryan to visit his convicted criminal father Tommy Lee Royce in prison – a decision that nearly broke Catherine and Clare’s sisterly bond.
ADVERTISEMENT
Clare and Catherine almost fell out for good in this season of Happy Valley, with Neil at the heart of the drama. Credit: BBC
The whole time, he’d seemed like a relatively minor character who just facilitated the relationship between Ryan and his dad.
But it left many fans questioning why he would actually help Tommy – a bona fide Bad Man – to build a bond with Ryan.
Fan theories have been flying around ever since Neil joined the Happy Valley cast, one of which was that he was secretly Tommy’s father.
ADVERTISEMENT
Someone else hypothesised: “Tommy is not Ryan’s father after all it’s actually Neil and he was the one who raped Becky all those years ago.”
Another person shared a clip of Neil’s reaction the first time he realised he was dating the sister of a police officer.
But after the series wrapped up at last last night, it turned out that Neil was just a normal bloke after all – albeit a normal bloke with a few brain cells missing.
It’s led to hundreds of viewers publicly apologising to the fictional character.
One person said: “Sorry for talking sh*t about you Neil xoxo.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Another said: “A f*ck tonne of us all silently apologising to Neil. Who wasn’t dodgy, or Tommy’s dad.”
One tweet said: “It’s such a Neil thing to do to not be part of any shock twist but just to have been a boring wet lettuce all along.”
A user pointed out: “Can’t believe we were all thinking Neil was Tommy’s dad and he was some kind of criminal mastermind who had planned for years to reconnect Tommy and Ryan when our first introduction to Neil was when he was so drunk he couldn’t get his own jumper on!”
ADVERTISEMENT
Well, that’s that then. Sorry Neil.
Featured image: BBC
TV & Showbiz
Scouting For Girls on Chesney Hawkes, Manchester gigs, Old Trafford and new tour
Thomas Melia
In case you missed it, British boyband and pop-rockers Scouting For Girls have announced a 20-date UK tour for early next year.
They’re already planning potential set lists for the tour already including some very special surprises as well as an entire brand new album.
Lead vocalist Roy Stride reminisces on life in a boyband, career highlights and just how excited he is to play Manchester once again.
After playing at Manchester Cathedral earlier this year, the boys are coming back to one of Manchester’s city centre music venues for a 15-year anniversary tour for their sophomore LP, Everybody Wants To Be On TV.
With the announcement of a new tour, can we expect any new music to coincide with this?
We have announced a new album that will come out after our tour. This tour is all about celebrating the second album, we’re going to slip in maybe one or two new songs into the setlist as we go, though.
How excited are you to be coming back to Manchester after the reception of your cathedral gig earlier this year?
That Manchester Cathedral gig was like it, I was gonna say biblical, but it really, it really, like, it was an amazing place to play it and it, it was unlike any gig we’d done before. Audience participation and people singing along works so well in a cathedral.
It really was a great feeling.
Are there any songs that you’ve put out on Everybody Wants To Be On TV that have grown on you over time or become your favourite all these years later?
There’s a song on there called ‘Posh Girls’ which I still can’t believe we put on the record, but it’s so ridiculous and fun, you know, that’s probably a real favourite of mine. It’s a real live favourite too.
Scouting for Girls are heading to O2 Apollo in Manchester early next year.Credit: Press Shot
This time round you’re playing O2 Apollo and in the past you’ve played multiple venues in our city centre, which has been your favourite?
Night and Day Cafe and O2 Apollo but we’ve even played old Trafford. We played in between a football or rugby game, that was pretty epic.
There’s a video which went round our band and crew WhatsApp group of the first time we played [O2 Apollo] in 2010, like when the album first came out.
We played the Royal Albert Hall the night before with these trumpet players, and they got really drunk and ended up staying on the tour bus with us. The trumpet players weren’t supposed to be there, but we hid them in the Manchester crowd and got them to play this fanfare intro.
It was really bad because they were just incredibly hung over, it was all over the place and our guitarists’ were just filming it but it’s still a real core memory for me.
It’s not just Manchester you’re stopping off at either, you’re playing a 20 date UK tour, how are you feeling ahead of playing a tour this big?
I love traveling around the country. I love being on a tour bus. I love getting a show really good. Our shows are quite fluid and they change, and the setlists change, but when you get really tight on tour it’s a magical place because you go on stage and you know, whatever happens, it’s going to be amazing.
And in fact, the weirdest stuff that happens, whether I end up in the crowd or the balcony, doing a conga – it’ll be a great night every night.
On your album you have a song titled ‘Michaela Strachan’, you all met for the first time last year at your Shepherd’s Bush show – Have you considered the potential of her joining you on stage during this song?
Maybe. I don’t know, however, I’m quite a good friend of Chesney Hawkes, who was just in the Big Brother house, and he was supposed to play a couple of songs last tour.
He was going to pop up and play like ‘The One and Only’ at one of our shows last year and we couldn’t make it happen because our guitarist ended up having a baby early and we didn’t have enough time to do it. I think we will have to play ‘Michaela Strachan’ on tour, though.
You have a song titled ‘Elvis Ain’t Dead’ named after the rock ‘n’ roll legend, besides the Memphis icon, who are your favourite music legends?
I’ve got a holy trinity: The Beatles, The Beach Boys and The [Rolling] Stones, everything goes back to those bands for me.
I also like REM I’d love for them to get back together. They were one of the first bands I saw and when they split up I honestly mourned when they split us up, I was depressed for like two weeks. Their last album was so good.
ADVERTISEMENT
They’ve done a few shows now so I don’t whether they’ll get back together, but that is definitely something I would love to see.
With this tour celebrating the remarkable 15 year anniversary of Everyone Wants To Be On TV, are there any songs off this project you wish fans showed more attention to when the album initially came out?
There was a song called ‘Take A Chance’ which was the last single, I hadn’t listened to the album for many years but going back and listening to it properly there’s some really good moments on it.
You spoke on social media about your single ‘The Place We Used To Meet’ and the album of the same name being very personal to you. Did fans respond the same way they did to your first few records?
It was a slightly different record. I suppose the songs were a bit more like this inner love song in terms of being more introspective, a bit more ballady. We still had an amazing response to it and we’re really, really proud of that album. But I don’t think it had like a banger like our first records.
ADVERTISEMENT
If you could pick one song off The Place We Used To Meet that each of you connects to the most, what would it be and why?
Glow. It was one of the singles and it’s all about how I sort of met my wife and how we met in Tokyo, got engaged, went back to Tokyo and I proposed to her. I went and did a video [for ‘Glow’] in Tokyo too. So it’s really special.
I think we’re working out what songs we’re going to put in the festival set but I think that’s still got to be in there.
Have there been any moments in your career that have made you feel like ‘The Luckiest Boy In The World’?
‘This Ain’t A Love Song’, because it went to number one and we got to play ChristmasTop of the Pops. It was a massive thing for us – that was definitely a bucket list moment.
ADVERTISEMENT
We also made Pete, our drummer, wear a Santa costume and told him we were all going to dress up, then we walked out the dressing rooms and he was the only one in an outfit, so he’s just there with this whole Santa costume and beard set while we’re just dressed looking normal.
To this day, he can’t prove that he was actually on Top of the Pops because it just looks like a guy with a massive beard.
Scouting for Girls are heading out on tour to celebrate 15 years of ‘Everybody Wants To Be On TV’.
Swordplay and rock ‘n’ roll: A Knight’s Tale comes to Manchester Opera House
Danny Jones
From the moment the curtain rises at Manchester Opera House, A Knight’s Tale bursts into life with exhilarating energy. This stage adaptation of the beloved 2001 film expertly blends medieval spectacle with a bold, modern twist.
Full of jousting tournaments, noble quests, and underdog triumphs, the production delivers both heart and high drama – all with a heady dose of rock ‘n’ roll.
At the centre of it all is William Thatcher, a young squire who dares to defy his lowly birth and enter the world of high-born knights. Played with charm and confidence by Andrew Coshan, William’s journey from peasant to jousting champion is rousing, if occasionally veering into heroic cliché.
Still, Coshan’s likability and natural charisma keep the audience cheering for him through every lance charge and dramatic monologue. The supporting cast also shines.
A standout is Eva Scott, whose comic timing and delivery consistently land laughs, often stealing scenes with her sharp one-liners.
Meanwhile, Meesha Turner brings elegance and spark to the role of Princess Jocelyn. Her powerful vocals during the show’s pop-classic ballads transform the character into a fiery, modern princess you can’t help but root for.
The production’s standout sequences are undoubtedly the jousts, theatrical set pieces that are an absolute masterclass in stagecraft. Using a clever combination of rigging, physical choreography, and dynamic sound design, the creative team conjures a truly immersive atmosphere.
Dramatic lighting and resonant sound effects make you feel the thud of hooves and the crash of lances. The cleverly designed set, featuring an arena-style jousting field, draws the audience into the action in a way that feels fresh and cinematic.
However, the show stumbles slightly in its quieter, more emotional scenes. The dialogue, while laced with humour, sometimes dips into melodrama. The villain, Count Adhemar, feels a touch underwritten, with motivations that don’t quite match the emotional weight the story strives for, but is still well-acted.
Don’t just take it from us: the A Knight’s Tale reviews from Manchester crowds are already very strong.
The stakes between him and William never fully build to the payoff they could – leaving certain dramatic beats a little flat. Musically, the show makes a bold departure from traditional scores. Instead, it leans into a soundtrack of classic rock anthems; think Queen, AC/DC, The Who and more.
At first, it seems like an odd match for a medieval tale, just as it did with the movie, but it works brilliantly. The music injects the show with rebellious energy and gives it a timeless quality. It’s loud, bold, and exactly what this high-octane tale of ambition and identity calls for.
A special mention must go to the ensemble and choreography. The jousting scenes are beautifully choreographed, blending acrobatics, dance, and swordplay with seamless precision. Even in quieter moments, the movement on stage supports the storytelling with subtle grace.
But the unexpected stars of the show? The horses. Designed with clever costume and movement illusions, they create the convincing effect of riders in full gallop – and at times, they very nearly steal the spotlight altogether.
Credit: Supplied
Though clearly aimed at adult audiences, with its cheeky humour and classic rock soundtrack, the show flirts with the spirit of panto, oversized characters, regional accents, and exaggerated physical comedy. And it works.
The regional dialects add warmth and levity, grounding the fantasy in a cheeky, very British sensibility. In the end, A Knight’s Tale is a triumphant and entertaining spectacle, an electrifying mix of medieval mythology and modern musical theatre.
Whether you’re a die-hard fan of the original film or seeing the story for the first time, this production offers a fun, fast-paced, and surprisingly heartfelt night out. It’s not perfect, but it’s hard not to be swept up in the clashing swords, galloping hooves, and power chords.
Put simply, this is a knight to remember – with a soundtrack that slays.
Daisy Jackson -
6th February 2023 
