The Valley That's Not So Happy Where do I start with this flawless show? First off, the acting by Sarah Lancashire combined with the writing by Sally Wainwright is beyond incredible. The thing with Happy Valley is it's not a police drama, it's about Catherine who happens to be a police officer. The character of hard-as-nails Sergeant Catherine Cawood really develops over the 3 series, but especially in the third series where she finally realises that her grandson Ryan (played by the incredibly talented Rhys Connah) is nothing like his serial killer father Tommy Lee Royce (played terrifyingly brilliantly by James Norton). The first series is a brilliant introduction to the world of Happy Valley, introducing us to Catherine & Tommy. While Tommy leads a very different life to Catherine, their worlds collide when Tommy rapes her daughter Becky, making her pregnant with son Ryan. Becky is driven to suicide and Catherine takes care of Ryan. After Tommy is released from prison (for drugs offences) Catherine makes it her mission to bring him down for what he did to her daughter. This sends Catherine into a deep depression, seeing hallucinations of her daughter's body. She pushes on and finally (somewhat violently) gets her man. Series 2 picks up a while later and sees Tommy in prison for abducting Ann Gallagher (Charlie Murphy) in series 1 and Catherine still flying through her career. But when she finds the body of Tommy's mother Lynn, her world is turned upside down all over again. Not helped by the fact that Tommy's girlfriend Frances (Shirley Henderson) is now working in Ryan's class at school. Series 3 picks up 7 years later when Catherine discovers the remains of a gangland murder victim which leads her straight back to Tommy. When she discovers her sister Clare (Siobhan Finneran) has been taking Ryan to see Tommy in prison everything in her life changes. The hallucinations start again and we see the return of determined, hard of nails Catherine Cawood. None of this is helped by Tommy escaping from court. This leads to one hell of a showdown between the two in the final ever episode. In the finale itself both Lancashire and Norton deliver acting masterclasses. After over 10 years of grieving for Becky, Catherine finally gets to have a 1:1 conversation with the man she belives drove her daughter to suicide and it does not dissapoint. Truths and lies are uncovered in the best TV scene of the decade and it did not disappoint. After dowsing himself in petrol (again) Tommy sets himself alight, leading to him dying in a coma. Catherine finally gets some peace with Tommy out of her life. She is finally ready to start saying goodbye to Becky and driving off to pastures new after retiring from Yorkshire Police. The character we all adore finally gets her happy ending after years of pain.