The second series of Death Valley doubles down on its cheery Welsh cosy crime formula, but it still does not answer the question at the center of its own title: where is Death Valley filmed? The review focuses instead on the show’s playful mechanics, its show-within-a-show setup and a fresh set of murders that keep the light, absurd tone moving.
Timothy Spall returns as John Chapel, one of the least subtle roles of his career, while Gwyneth Keyworth is back as Janie Mallowan, now promoted to detective inspector. The partnership has shifted again because Chapel is now in a relationship with Janie’s mum, Vonnie, a detail that keeps the series comfortably inside its own comic soap opera. That domestic twist sits alongside the sort of crime cases the show likes to build around, including a suspicious death during a community service litter-picking detail and the murder of a hipster chef selling seaside street food.
The review says the plotting is ridiculously schematic throughout, but that is also part of the point. Death Valley is presented as a Welsh cosy crime drama with a deliberately arch, knowing style, and the second series keeps leaning into self-referential jokes and theatrical reveals. Guest stars Alexandra Roach, Jane Horrocks, Jim Howick and Roisin Conaty are among the names brought in to keep the engine ticking, and the result is a series that sometimes feels less like a cosy crime drama and more like a snarky spoof of one.
That is why the question of where Death Valley is filmed matters less to this review than the way the series uses its Welsh valley setting as part of the joke. The first series established the show-within-a-show premise and the cosy valley backdrop, and this second run continues in the same register, with the emphasis on style, performance and a wink at the genre rather than realism. The review does not give filming-location information, which fits a series that is more interested in self-mockery than in geography.
What emerges is a clear judgment: Death Valley is still playing a clever, comic game with cosy crime, and that game is the draw. The second series does not reinvent itself, but it does keep its rhythm, and for viewers who want a Welsh murder mystery that knows exactly how daft it is, that is likely enough.
