‘Happy Valley’: Filming Begins On 3rd & Final Season
Filming has finally begun on the long-awaited 3rd and final season of BBC drama ‘Happy Valley‘ the broadcaster has announced, along with revealing the new and returning cast.
When Sergeant Catherine Cawood (Sarah Lancashire) 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 (James Norton). Her grandson Ryan (Rhys Connah) is now 16 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.
Alongside Lancashire, Norton and Connah, returning cast also includes Siobhan Finneran as Catherine’s sister, the recovering addict Clare Cartwright and Con O’Neill 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 returning favourites including Derek Riddell as Richard Cawood, Karl Davies as Daniel Cawood, Susan Lynch as Alison Garrs, Rick Warden as Mike Taylor, and Vincent Franklin as Andy Shepherd.
New cast for this season includes 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’) who will play pivotal roles in the final chapter.
It’s been a while since ‘Happy Valley’ has been on our screens having last aired in 2016, but for once, the delay was not due to the pandemic, but was a creative decision. For the last part of the story, screenwriter Sally Wainwright knew that she needed the character of Ryan Cawood (played by Rhys Connah) to be a teenager, rather than a young boy. Whilst they could have recast, she wanted to keep Ryan in the role and wait for him to age up. Plus she had plenty to keep her busy in the intervening time, such as a second season of ‘Gentleman Jack‘, which is due out later this year, and the upcoming swashbuckling adventure series ‘The Ballad of Renegade Nell’ for Disney+.
‘Happy Valley’ is adored by viewers and critics alike, with series two attracting an average audience of 9.3 million. The first two series each won the Bafta Television awards for both Drama Series and Writing: Drama for Sally Wainwright, with Sarah Lancashire winning the Bafta Television award for Leading Actress for series two.
Happy Valley series three was commissioned by Piers Wenger, Director of BBC Drama, and is a Lookout Point production for the BBC, co-produced with AMC. Happy Valley is written and created by Sally Wainwright. Series three will be directed by Patrick Harkins and Fergus O’Brien, with Chris Clough as series producer, and Jessica Taylor as producer. Executive producers are Sally Wainwright and Sarah Lancashire, with Faith Penhale and Will Johnston for Lookout Point, and Ben Irving for the BBC. BBC Studios, who wholly own Lookout Point, is distributing series three in addition to series one and two.
‘Happy Valley‘ Season 3 does not yet have an air date, although, if it’s only filming now, it’s going to be late 2022 at the earliest. If you want to keep track of this or any other shows, you can add them via our Never Miss system, and you’ll be notified when they get a UK premiere date.
