Filming has started this week for series 3 of Sally Wainwright’s hugely acclaimed, BAFTA-willing Happy Valley.
Sarah Lancashire returns to her iconic role of Sergeant Catherine Cawood for six new episodes, long discussed by Sally Wainwright and Sarah Lancashire as the final chapter of the Happy Valley story.
Happy Valley series three is made by Lookout Point for BBC One and iPlayer, in co-production with AMC Networks. BBC Studios is distributing the series internationally.
As previously announced, James Norton and Siobhan Finneran will also return for series three – as Catherine’s nemesis, the murderer and sex-offender Tommy Lee Royce, and Catherine’s sister, the recovering addict Clare Cartwright respectively.
Con O’Neill will reprise his role as Clare’s recovering alcoholic boyfriend Neil Ackroyd. George Costigan will return as Nevison Gallagher, with Charlie Murphy as his daughter and Catherine’s police colleague Ann. They will be joined by other Happy Valley returning favourites including Derek Riddell as Richard Cawood, Karl Davies as Daniel Cawood, Susan Lynch as Alison Garrs, Rick Warden as Mike Taylor, Vincent Franklin as Andy Shepherd and Rhys Connah as Catherine’s grandson Ryan Cawood.
Amit Shah (The Other One, The Long Call), Mark Stanley (The Girl Before, White House Farm) and Mollie Winnard (All Creatures Great and Small, Four Lives) join the cast for series three, and will play pivotal roles in Happy Valley’s final chapter.
When Catherine discovers the remains of a gangland murder victim in a drained reservoir it sparks a chain of events that unwittingly leads her straight back to Tommy Lee Royce. Her grandson Ryan is now sixteen and still living with Catherine, but he has ideas of his own about what kind of relationship he wants to have with the man Catherine refuses to acknowledge as his father. Still battling the seemingly never-ending problem of drugs in the valley and those who supply them, Catherine is on the cusp of retirement.
Happy Valley series three will premiere on BBC One and BBC iPlayer, and the first two series of Happy Valley are available to watch in full on BBC iPlayer now. In the U.S. and Canada, AMC Networks will be the exclusive home for series three which will be available on the AMC+ premium streaming bundle where series one and two are also now available to binge.
Filming will continue in and around West Yorkshire over the coming months.