We’re in the inappropriately named Happy Valley where the murder, mayhem and misery are a way of life. Dangerous? This place is seriously lethal.

It started on a high with one dead sheep, several dead dogs and a dead human being rotting in a garage. And it’s been getting more macabre ever since.

Rape, slaughter, prostitution, sex slavery, people trafficking… this disastrous dystopia has got it all. What’s not to like?

“Have you ever tried to kill yourself?” the psychiatrist asked hard-as-nails police woman Catherine Cawood, neglecting to add: “If not, why not?”

But this is the gruesome stuff of great TV drama, and they don’t come much better than writer Sally Wainwright’s torrid tale of northern woe.

At the centre of the blood-soaked action Sgt Cawood is at war with depraved Tommy Lee Royce, the monster who attacked her daughter and drove her to suicide. It’s a compelling battle of wills between two formidable foes. Good versus evil with no certainty that good will prevail.

In the performance of her career, Sarah Lancashire steals the show as the redoubtable Catherine. And James Norton’s powerful portrait of demonic narcissism is mesmerising.

Meanwhile, Downton footman Mr Molesley’s marriage to Corrie Hayley is not going well. He’s cheating on her and she’s cheating on him. That’s matrimony… Happy Valley style.

OK, it’s not really Mr Molesley and Hayley. It’s actor Kevin Doyle and actress Julie Hesmondalgh playing the dysfunctional couple from hell.

Kevin’s character is a CID detective who strangles his mistress and then finds himself investigating a homicide he committed. That’s police work… Happy Valley style.

A tangled web of sinister stories, this second series is already every bit as enthralling as the first. It doesn’t exactly send your spirits soaring. But here’s to the Beeb for delivering an instant classic. This is about as good as it gets.