After a hiatus of seven years, the television show Happy Valley is finally returning to our screens. In preparation for the upcoming third season, here is all you need to know to get caught up.
Blockbuster drama created by Sally Wainwright launched in 2014 and followed no-nonsense sergeant Catherine Cawood (Sarah Lancashire) and villain Tommy Lee Royce (James Norton) in Yorkshire. Sarah Lancashire played Cawood, and James Norton played Royce.
The concluding season of the BBC show will premiere in the new year, and it will follow a police officer who is about to retire as he investigates a gangland murder after human remains are discovered in a reservoir.
Cawood also has the responsibility of looking after her grandson Ryan (Rhys Connah), who has his own thoughts about the kind of relationship he wants to have with his incarcerated father, Royce, who is responsible for the rape of Ryan’s late mother. Royce is currently serving time for the crime.
When a neighbour in the not-so-sleepy village is taken into custody, a pharmacist who is secretly running a shady operation finds himself in over his head. He was handling the operation in secret.
The first episode of the series will be available on iPlayer and BBC One on the first day of the new year. Thereafter, new episodes will be released weekly on Sunday evenings.
As the audience members get ready to tune in to the first exciting episode of Happy Valley, here is a quick review of the first two seasons of the show.
What happened in Happy Valley season 1?
The first season of Happy Valley followed Catherine Cawood as she continued to deal with the loss of her daughter Becky, who had committed suicide when she was a teenager eight years earlier.
Cawood is responsible for raising Becky’s small boy Ryan despite the fact that she is divorced from her husband and resides with her sister Clare (Siobhan Finneran) (Rhys Connah).
Becky’s sexual assault by Tommy Lee Royce resulted in the conception of Ryan, but she took her own life a few months after the traumatic event.
After Royce gets freed from jail, Cawood becomes preoccupied with tracking him down since he is adamant that his son did not have anything to do with the drug allegations that led to Royce’s incarceration in the first place.
During this time, Cawood is also looking into the kidnapping of Ann Gallagher, played by Charlie Murphy, who was abducted for ransom by Kevin Weatherill, a close friend of Ann’s father and an accountant. Steve Pemberton is playing the role of Cawood.
Royce and his accomplice, the brute Lewis Whippey (played by Adam Long), carry out the terrible plot, but it comes dangerously close to failing when they are pulled over for speeding by PC Kirsten McAskill with Ann tied down in the trunk (Sophie Rundle).
Evil Royce determined to continue with the kidnap takes hold of the situation and runs over and kills McAskill, devastating the force.
Hot on his trail, Cawood learns that Ann is being held hostage at Royce’s mother’s house and rescues her from the cellar, before learning the murderer has been secretly spending time with Ryan after school.
Growing frantic and having murdered his accomplices, Royce spots Ryan walking past the narrowboat he is camping out in and snatches him from the street.
Spotting her grandson’s bike outside the barge, Cawood storms in and, after threatening to kill his own son, finally apprehends and arrests Royce.
What happened in Happy Valley season 2?
The second series of Happy Valley is set 18 months after the events of the first season and sees Cawood win an award for bravery, while Royce is serving a life sentence for his crimes.
They do, however, bump into one another when Royce is granted leave from prison to attend his mother’s funeral, with Cawood being one of the suspects involved in her death.
Furious, Royce enlists pharmacist Frances Drummond (Shirley Henderson), who has become infatuated with him, to kill his arch nemesis Cawood in revenge, even befriending Ryan as part of the plan.
Meanwhile, Cawood has been tasked with investigating a human trafficking operation that is linked to the murders of prostitutes across Calder Valley.
After suspecting Sean Balmforth (Matthew Lewis), an alleged rapist, after DNA shows up in his van, lonely and bullied farmer Daryl Garrs (Robert Emms) confesses to his mother he is responsible for the murders.
To prevent him from going to prison, his mum Alison (Susan Lynch) fatally shoots him and takes an overdose, before being arrested by Cawood for his murder.
Cawood also works out her colleague DCI John Wadsworth (Kevin Doyle) was behind the murder of his mistress Vicky Fleming (Amelia Bullmore), who had been blackmailing him.
The series ends with Wadsworth confessing to Cawood he killed her before jumping off a bridge.
Happy Valley continues on BBC One and iPlayer on Sunday at 9pm.
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