
Sally Wainwright
Creator
Biography
Sally Anne Wainwright OBE (born 1963) is an English television writer, producer, and director. She is known for her dramas, which are often set in West Yorkshire, where she originates from, and feature "strong female characters". Wainwright has been praised for the quality of her dialogue. Wainwright began her career as a scriptwriter on the long-running radio serial drama The Archers, and worked on the television soap operas Emmerdale and Coronation Street in the 1990s. Her first original drama, At Home with the Braithwaites, aired between 2000 and 2003. After two self-described "flops" in the mid-2000s, Wainwright found success with Unforgiven (2009), for which she won the Royal Television Society's Writer of the Year Award. Her work since includes Scott & Bailey (2011–2016), Last Tango in Halifax (2012–2020), Happy Valley (2014–2023), and Gentleman Jack (2019–2022). Last Tango in Halifax won the British Academy Television Award for Best Drama Series in 2013, and Happy Valley won the same award in both 2015 and 2017.
Known For

Bad Girls is a British television drama series that was broadcast on ITV from 1 June 1999 to 20 December 2006 and starred Simone Lahbib, Mandana Jones, Debra Stephenson, Linda Henry, Jack Ellis and many more throughout the eight-year run. The series was broadcast in 17 countries and was produced by Shed Productions, the company which later produced Footballers' Wives and Waterloo Road. It is set in the fictional women's prison of Larkhall, and features a mixture of serious and light storylines focusing on the prisoners and staff of G Wing. From 2010, the UK broadcast rights were bought by CBS Drama, and is repeated regularly – as of September 2012, the channel is re-running the series again in a late-night time slot.
Bad Girls

The big names behind the big stories. Laura Kuenssberg talks to those making the news, inside and outside politics.
Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg

Happy Valley is a dark, funny, multi-layered thriller revolving around the personal and professional life of Catherine, a dedicated, experienced, hard-working copper. She is also a bereaved mother who looks after her orphaned grandchild.
Happy Valley

What are the secrets of our favourite TV shows? Famous names from both sides of the camera reflect on making some of the most popular and influential programmes of all time.
Remembers…

Halifax, West Yorkshire, England, 1832. Anne Lister attempts to revitalize her inherited home, Shibden Hall. Most notably for the time period, a part of her plan is to help the fate of her own family - by taking a wife.
Gentleman Jack

D.C. Rachel Bailey and D.C. Janet Scott have a robust and engaging friendship which enables them to draw upon each other’s strengths and investigate murders for the Manchester Metropolitan Police.
Scott & Bailey

A woman is released from prison after serving a sentence for a violent crime and re-enters a society that refuses to forgive her past.
The Unforgivable

Celia and Alan are both widowed and in their seventies. When their respective grandsons put their details on Facebook, they rediscover a passionate relationship that started over sixty years ago.
Last Tango in Halifax

England, 1705: Framed for murder and on the run with her sisters, Nell Jackson turns her hand to highway robbery to survive. Aided by her superpowered sidekick, a plucky little sprite called Billy Blind, Nell realizes that fate has put her on the wrong side of the law for a reason. A reason much bigger than she could have ever imagined: to defeat a magical plot against the Queen of England.
Renegade Nell

Four of Shakespeare's plays are dramatically relocated to the modern day.
ShakespeaRe-Told

Six single dramas adapted from six of Geoffrey Chaucer's 14th century Canterbury Tales, transferred to a modern, 21st century setting, but still set along the traditional Pilgrims' route to Canterbury.
Canterbury Tales

Three fiercely talented female homicide investigators work tirelessly to solve crimes while navigating the complicated demands of their personal lives.
The Detail

The lives of a suburban family from Leeds are turned upside down when the matriarch wins £38 million on the lottery.
At Home with the Braithwaites

Five women along with two riotous backing singers come together to create a makeshift punk-rock band in order to enter a local talent contest, but in writing their first original song, soon discover that they have a lot to say - and this is their way to say it.
Riot Women

Supermarket manager Ros Pritchard decides to stand for election and her steady gains of support gives rise to thoughts of becoming Prime Minister.
The Amazing Mrs Pritchard

Upon release from jail, a woman who was found guilty of murdering two police officers when she was a teenager who is determined to see her sister who was adopted.
Unforgiven

The relationship between childhood sweethearts, a farmer's daughter and boy from a rich family, turns tumultuous in this modern interpretation of Wuthering Heights.
Sparkhouse

Struggling to find a job in her northern home town, Jane is convinced that she is ugly, boring, and completely useless. But after one blazing row with her parents too many, Jane decides to move to London, where she finds sex, adventure, friendship and fun driving a red London bus.
Jane Hall

Bonkers is a British comedy series written by Sally Wainwright and starring Liza Tarbuck as a school teacher who discovers her husband is having an affair. It was transmitted on ITV during 2007. It was also released on DVD. This series is available on DVD, distributed by Acorn Media UK.
Bonkers
PR man Max Kelvin is hired by Prince Charles to change the Monarchy's image. His first task: to tackle the web of intrigue spun by the staff of Buckingham Palace under the lead of Lord Bermondsey.