Happy Valley star James Norton has shared which celebrities across the pond in the US have got in touch with him since becoming fans of the hit BBC One show.
BBC viewers were overjoyed to see the show – which stars Sarah Lancashire as the police community officer for the West Yorkshire Police Department – make its return after years off air and the finale now looms this weekend.
Happy Valley viewers were treated to another stellar episode of the highly anticipated issue of the BBC One show on Sunday evening as part of the third and final season.
Norton, who plays psychopath Tommy Lee Royce, has opened up about the phenomenal reception of the show in a new interview.
The 37-year-old, who is in the running to clinch the coveted role of James Bond after Daniel Craig’s swansong in No Time To Die, said he has even had stars of the screen and stage confirm they are fans of Happy Valley.
Norton discussed the cause of the show’s popularity in the US, saying he has even received a direct message on social media from Trainwreck star Amy Schumer and that Bob Dylan, who was awarded a Nobel Prize in literature in 2016, also ‘loves’ Happy Valley.
He said in an interview with Vera magazine : “People find our little island fascinating. When you ask Americans where they're from, they're still obsessed with our heritage because it's in some ways theirs.
“Happy Valley is quintessentially British in its specificity to that part of England. There's a fascination with that.
“It's a brilliant police procedural but at its heart it's about family. What translates across the world is that everyone knows what it is to have messed up families that you can't tear yourself away from. It's cool.”
In the lead-up to the last episode, the BBC has released a new trailer teasing the final showdown between Catherine Cawood and Tommy Lee Royce.
Viewers of the gritty BBC drama have fallen in love with its West Yorkshire landscape.
Writer Sally Wainwright conceived the show as a tribute to her native Calder Valley and the locations are becoming hot spots for tourists.
The former mill town of Hebden Bridge is known for its independent spirit, sense of community and activism ever since hippies squatted in empty buildings in the 1970s.
The next and final Happy Valley episode hits BBC One screens on Sunday at 9pm.
