Police sergeant Catherine Cawood (Sarah Lancashire) is only seven months shy of a well-deserved retirement and yet webs of criminal behaviour in West Yorkshire all seemingly lead back to the infamous Tommy Lee Royce (James Norton) again.
Now parading as a messiah type in prison in Sheffield, Cawood and Royce go way back – he was responsible for her daughter’s suicide in the aftermath of an assault which resulted in Ryan, Catherine’s grandson. This final series of the show follows Cawood as she tries to grapple with betrayals in her own family while trying to put Royce behind bars for good.
Happy Valley has always prioritised quality over quantity. The third series premiered 7 years after the second so that Ryan Cawood’s original actor (Rhys Connah) would be old enough to continue his portrayal of the troubled boy.
Ryan is now 16 and is still struggling somewhat at school – this time at the hands of a bullying PE teacher named Hepworth. Slowly over the course of the first two episodes, the groundwork is laid for both new and old elements of the crime series’ storyline, as all characters intersect and overlap: Cawood, Hepworth, Royce.
Sarah Lancashire is one of the most charismatic, believable characters on telly for the last 10 years at least. Sharp tongued, somewhat cantankerous but with a heart of gold, Lancashire’s Cawood has mesmerised audiences across the UK from the series’ start in 2014.
One of her trademarks has become her delivering a good dressing down to at least one character per episode, whether it be her police colleagues or her family. But aside from her wit and slight impatience, she commands her scenes best when there is tight emotion behind her eyes. This might be showrunner Sally Wainwright’s masterpiece, but this is also Lancashire’s magnum opus.
Another standout performance comes from Catherine Cawood’s sister Clare (played by British TV veteran Siobhan Finneran). Torn between paying into Ryan’s emotional bank account and supporting Catherine’s vendetta against Royce, she struggles to keep the peace.
In turn, this rightfully exasperates the viewers (summed up nicely by Catherine who remarks: “I am going to interrupt if you keep talking shit”.) Clare’s whole character arc as a recovering addict hinges on her belief that people are capable of change. Episode three’s scene in which the two sisters emotionally spar in hushed voices in a coffee shop makes for some gripping TV.
The third and final series of Happy Valley is a masterclass in pacing and momentum from the start. Despite heavy themes such as domestic violence, substance abuse and the chaos that comes with battling organised crime, the heart and soul of the show is about surviving trauma.
The perseverance of Catherine Cawood in the face of adversity is what drives the emotional narrative home. We all hope that she can escape crime-riddled Yorkshire and embark on her trip across the Himalayas, but nothing in Happy Valley has ever been simple.
5/5