It took seven years for Happy Valley’s majestic third and final act to reach our screens, but it turned out to be well worth the wait. There are few, if any, crime series like it: it was funny, blunt, tender, terrifying and so gripping that for six weeks, it revived the idea that television audiences might still watch a drama together, all at once, at the same time, because watching it together made it even more thrilling and even more tense. This is likely the last we will have seen of Catherine Cawood, which is bittersweet – though I’m holding out for an Indiana Jones-style caper in the Himalayas. But what a way to end it.
After three series, the dance to the death between Sgt Cawood (Sarah Lancashire in the performance of her career, which is saying something) and Tommy Lee Royce (James Norton), the man who raped her daughter, finally reached its conclusion. Perhaps there was some trepidation. Fewer and fewer shows manage to deliver endings that live up to what viewers can imagine in their own minds, and TV is littered with disappointments, particularly when anticipation is so high. In the run-up to the final episode, viewers came up with plenty of ideas about how it might end. Who would betray whom? Would Ryan prove to be more like Catherine or more like his father? How would Catherine and Tommy extricate themselves from each other’s lives for good?
