Happy Valley Series 3 - BBC1 9pm starts 1 January 2023 - no spoilers - tv pace

[IwantToRetire]

Just thought we could start with a dedicated thread to series three of Happy Valley.

There are 2 existing thread were fans have been discussing rewatching series 1 & 2

www.mumsnet.com/talk/telly_addicts/4694640-happy-valley-series-3-coming

www.mumsnet.com/talk/telly_addicts/4688605-happy-valley-series-3-to-be-shown-at-christmas

And for anyone who is going to binge, do you want to start your own thread?!

I'll try to find that @LadyEloise1

I do too. I wish in interviews he'd occasionally give a flash of Tommy, the scary stare or the 'Ow do?'. He really is like 2 completely different people. I mean I know that is the point of acting but I've never seen anyone transform themselves quite so convincingly.

It always amazes me how sweet and nice he is. He comes across so well. Nothing like TLR.

Would anybody else watch a Happy Valley 2006 spin-off if they made one? All about Becky. Showing what she was like (they’ve always kept her very ambiguous, all we know about her is hearsay), showing her first getting involved with TLR, more context about what he did to her (or not, depending on if you believe he did rape her or not as it has been brought into question, I believe it) the pregnancy with Ryan, and the weeks following the birth before she took her own life?

No way in a million years it would ever happen (they’d have to try and de-age or recast Becky’s parents) but I’d deffo watch. I like gritty and although we know how everything unfolded, they could still add some twists in there or even just more context to the main show. For more content to fill out the episodes (or they could even just do one episode to see the show off) we could see Catherine at work work at the time and how the Becky ordeal changed her as a person and her as a police officer.

But as I say, it’ll never happen. I expect it’s a deliberate choice by Sally Wainright to keep us wondering about Becky, otherwise they’d have shown flashback scenes of her.

His real voice is shockingly high pitched.
I knew he was likely posh london or something but not high.

He’s from North Yorks.

Sounds southern tho.

@jaicobain I said that earlier. Be fab to have a s4 with Becky and Tommy relationship

Just watched Graham Norton. Does TLR wear a prosthetic nose? He’s waaay more handsome in real life.

The scene (a few second preview of episode 2) where he whispers in the chaplain’s ear 🫣 goodness! I am very much looking forward to watching it tomorrow.

Thinking of Daniel, how did he end up with Anne? Seems an unlikely match. He doesn’t seem to have much empathy.

@Blondeshavemorefun British dramas tend to shy away from flashbacks I find but if there’s any series the BBC should try it with if they want to experiment then it’s deffo Happy Valley.

As I said, even though we know generally what happened they can add more context and the odd twist. And for filler we can see more side plots of what Catherine was foing at work at the time.

It wouldn’t surprise me if we get some flashbacks of Becky later on in this series though. Maybe if there’s a twist about her or the circumstances of Ryan’s conception.

Really, this whole series is about Becky. They should give us a face to put to the name at the end I think.

True tho is Star Wars can do it sure happy valley can

and quite frankly it’s anything but happy to live there 😂😂

If they did do a Becky prequel it would be interesting as at time she was a Detective (not at the local police station but .... ) so lots of opportunity for a young Catherine to show up smug colleagues.

Although it would have to show her having a breakdown and the family failing to support her when she decided she had to take on Ryan.

Who would play the younger Catherine?!

oops - when I said "as at time she", I should have said "as at time Catherine"

Could Kate Winslet pull off 40 year old Catherine?

Sally Lindsay?

Interesting as someone has mentioned abuse. I wonder if Daniel abused Becky.

😮 no, I don’t think so. I think the focus for the next 5 episodes will be on Ryan/TLR/Catherine.

I think they just had a normal sibling/jealousy relationship but when she died, Daniel’s feelings of jealousy and her being the favourite child increased.

I suppose Acting School strips all of the individuality out of you so that they can start with a blank canvas . . .

. . . just like Cordon bleu cookery classes start you off with tasteless bases made exactly the same way by every chef, so that they can teach you the influences of various flavours and what goes with what.

It's like being an artist - you can't break the rules the way eg Picasso did unless you have first mastered the rules.

We watched the first two series this week as DH had never seen them, before starting series 3 last night, so all very fresh. I do think this writing is fantastic and I would be disappointed if the Top Gun ‘just about to retire/party/off to the Himalayas/new partner’ stuff was as obvious as it’s seeming. (Laughing at a PP saying they’d never thought Catherine might die as clearly most of the rest of us think it’s highly likely.)

But I am irritated at the TLR/Ryan contact storyline. First, his mail would be screened and he would never have received letters from Ryan in the first place. Second there is NO WAY Catherine would have let the injunction lapse, and given the nature of his crimes, the grooming in series 2, and the fact that Ryan is a minor, it’s very unlikely that the prison authorities wouldn’t have raised concerns about him visiting in any case. It’s annoying me because I’m spending too much time thinking of this plot hole.

I did mean to add that I think TLR feels genuinely that his son is very important to him. Horrible childhood, miserable adulthood, his son is the person who he wants love from. It’s not a functional attachment; he’s a psychopath so he’s looking for what he can get from Ryan and not what he can offer him as a parent, and he clearly wouldn’t act in his best interests in any way, but I think there’s a basic desire for some sort of family relationship.

I find it best not to analyse the plot too much but just enjoy and let yourself be entertained.

I did think strange the injunction order was lapsed but maybe she thought 5/7yrs later she /they was safe from Tommy

But yes sis mine must have told Tommy

Wondering if Daniel's ex wife sue to being dumped for the one beaten /raped kidnapeee By Tommy aka Ann

Same. I'd never watch anything otherwise as there's always holes.

Yes, I'm rewatching series 2 and he says Catherine said she wished it had been him who died. Catherine doesn't remember saying it.

I have a theory...
Catherine's ex-husband is actually Ryan's father. He was abusing their daughter, hence her going 'off-the-rails' and her distress at being pregnant and suicide after Ryan's birth.

I've just rewatched the first two series and in both SW has written a main male character who seems pleasant, inoffensive, bland (the little accountant and the detective who was having an affair) who were actually deluded and selfish monsters - I reckon Catherine's ex is this type too. And Catherine is often saying how the bad guys can be anyone, not just the obvious monsters.

It's probably wide of the mark as a theory but came to me while watching the story of the farmer woman and her son. I don't think we know for sure TLR is Ryan's father. I think TLR needs to come to a terrible end, he can cope with prison but learning Ryan isn't his son would destroy him as it's all he has now.

But I've no idea who's taking Ryan to visit TLR in prison 🤷