As a rule of thumb, I don't watch that much on ITV. Gossip Girl and the occasional episode of Dancing on Ice aside, being at uni means much of my telly is on the Beeb and Channel 4, simply because their online services tend to buffer better. Having said that, Scott and Bailey is definitely an exception.

With both lead characters having been in Doctor Who, it was fairly obvious I was going to give this show a chance (I'm a bit of a Whovian and anyone who has been in Doctor Who is, in my eyes, something of a credible actor. This means I usually watch subsequent programmes they're in and Scott and Bailey is no different.)

This is not however the reason I carried on watching Scott and Bailey. The programme has everything I love: strong female leads, mystery and murder, gripping story lines and most importantly decent dialogue. As someone who wants to be a writer, dialogue in drama intrigues and interests me and if I can't guess what the next line is going, then it gets the thumbs up from me. I know from personal experience how hard it is to be creatively original these days so kudos to Sally Wainwright.

The first series was intense and intriguing and I couldn't be happier it's back for a second. I literally spend my life wanting to be like the Caggie Dunlop's and Leighton Meester's of the world but for the brief hour a week I spend watching Scott and Bailey, I find myself wanting to be like Suranne Jones' character Rachel Bailey. She's a pretty yet professional woman who has her own house, her own car and a strong, blossoming career. Don't get me wrong, I'm still very much in the mindset of a uni student - I like nights out, cheap vodka, knee high socks and changing my hair. But there's also a part of me that hopes I'll have a healthy future, where I'll have a house and a car and a fully fledged career, being as professionally perfect as I can be.

Scott and Bailey is not only brilliant prime-time television. It's giving us powerful female role models for the youth of tomorrow and if any year should be the year for women, it ought to be 2012.