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?!

Surprising what a difference not being barely conscious and covered in your child's blood makes isn't it? 😂

I think it's one of those things that particularly affects people who work in those fields, isn't it? I know that on the (rare) occasion something touched on my own profession I got very antsy and all "that would NEVER happen because XYZ" etc, - as you say, it's forcing yourself to suspend disbelief just that touch for the sake of the narrative.

I would think that anyone connected with the police force or the NHS suffered most, as there are more police procedural/medical programmes than any other. I'll bet they all tear out their hair and howl every time these inappropriate paperwork or a badly administered injection.

<takes a deep, calming breath>

My husband is a retired police officer, has done many roles from beat officer to detective to training to senior management post. He can't watch police things, drives him mad. I worked as a civilian support staff for many years and I focus more on the personalities and love spotting characters who are familiar to me.

The thing I love, it happens a lot in American police dramas, is when the police are approaching a subject and from a distance they announce themselves giving the suspect a head start when he runs off. It always makes me smile as I don't think I ever worked with an officer who would make his own life difficult like that.

Maybe the issue with not reporting to SS is that the wife hasn’t actually said that there is DV in family.

About a year after I married my husband. I had an accident, broken bones, bruising etc. I worked in a police station, my husband had been at the station previously so most people knew him. Their reaction to poor bruised and broken me? Lots of joking about DV. As it happens it was a complete accident, no blame to DH who wasn't even near me when it happened, he heard it and ran to help me, but if he had beaten me up?

The thing I love, it happens a lot in American police dramas, is when the police are approaching a subject and from a distance they announce themselves giving the suspect a head start when he runs off. It always makes me smile as I don't think I ever worked with an officer who would make his own life difficult like that.

Same here @ancientgran "Stop! Police!" from 200 yards away, when if they just continued pretending to be two blokes chatting as they walked past that could just grab the "perp" (God - I HATE that term) when they get up to him - but then we'd miss those exciting chases, pushing octogenarians under yellow cabs as they ploughed down the mean streets, through the abattoir flinging chicken guts all over so the officers were skidding wildly, on through the mother and baby unit of the local hospital, down into the subway etc where they were either lost in the crowd (despite having to be so out of breath they could hardly stand upright) or caught by a wily wisecracking older cop who had anticipated where they were going to eventually end up and was waiting for them with open handcuffs and their Miranda rights. All the time firing wildly at each other but not hitting anyone. So believable.

There's a degree of this in a couple of British police programmes, too - I can't watch "A Touch of Frost". I really can't stand him - he'd be hell to work alongside for a start, as he's just a rsehle, but seeing this overweight desk jockey, close to retirement age, chasing after some fit young villain, running through housing estates, jumping off balconies, charging up flights of stairs - and then gaining ground and catching up with this kid (who in real life would run rings around the old git) before wrestling him to the ground, overpowering him and 'cuffing him, while being barely out of breath . . . Really? I know it's fiction, but do I honestly look that stupid?

I'm prepared to stretch belief, but there are limits. (Does your DH have any particularly loathed programmes - or is it just a sea of horror to him?)

*There is no need to answer that question, actually, thank you very much 😅

Accidental bolding - please ignore.

He generally won't watch them, he watched a bit of LOD and it was hard to listen to him as I do love LOD and he was so disgusted with it. The only police drama he has any time for is Hill Street Blues which he really liked and found very believable.

I do agree about the chases, they do want to have the drama which is logical I suppose but I can't agree about A Touch of Frost. I worked for a DCI who was just like Frost, shorter and older than anyone else, a bit chaotic personal life but he was a brilliant Detective. I never worked on a murder that he was running where they didn't get the "perp" and I will always remember him tearing a young detective down who was making a disparaging remark about prostitutes when the victim was a prostitute. I worked in the office so never saw him chasing anyone, it probably wouldn't have looked good but DH worked with him when he was younger so he can picture that.

Hill Street Blues was one I never got a chance to watch - I wonder if it's still available somewhere.

It isn't Frost's ethos of compassion I don't like - it's the way he goes round stealing people's lunches out of the communal fridge, and otherwise imposing on them personally - as a human being he is lovely; as a colleague I'd want to staple him to the wall!

(Thinking about it, my opinion may be coloured by the fact that I don't like David Jason - I know I'm probably the only person in the English-speaking world who doesn't, but there's something I find unpleasant about him in a "can't-put-my-finger-on-it" way, and that I am probably being very unfair on him, but he sets me on edge. I feel tha same about David Walliams)

Yes we are all influenced by a variety of things so you not liking David Jason and me seeing my old DCI in Frost is obviously going to make us look at it from different ends.

I worked for a DCI who was just like Frost, shorter and older than anyone else, a bit chaotic personal life but he was a brilliant Detective. I never worked on a murder that he was running where they didn't get the "perp"

Puts me in mind of Colin Sutton when I've seen him on RV about his cases (minus the chaotic personal life).

As we only see a fraction of Catherine’s work I Would argue that she has flagged it up to SS etc in her report. Doesn’t need to be said after all we don’t see her having a meal break or popping to the loo and we don’t see her spending hours on paperwork which is the life of a police Officer. I am giving Sally wainwright and Catherine the benefit of the doubt as I so love the show and hate to see any flaws. Oh and I love David Jason. But David Walliams is not my cup of tea

True but it would be very relevant as it would enrage the abuser even more to have ss snooping and asking questions, whereas Catherine's loo breaks not as relevant.

Maybe it will come up and the awful situation at home will escalate.

I don't mind David Jason (although plenty seem to take exception to him). Walliams is a dick, though. He hosted that execrable Presidents Club farrago.

Bit late to the discussion but why did the pharmacist mention a son who doesn’t exist to the gangster? Something about wanting to track him only for the gangster to say he knows fine well there’s no son?

I think the pharmacist was just - clumsily - checking to see if Thugboy really did know all about his daughters.

Because, thick as pig shit as he is, he was testing to see how much bullyboy actually knew. I can’t help but think there’d be better ways of doing that without being so blatant about lying and pissing him off further tho.

Thanks @MavisMcMinty and @BarbourandWellies - that makes sense.

Got me thinking now about CC not reporting. Would it be a wise move though given husband's violence? I mean he wouldn't be very happy would he if people started snooping before anything could be done for her and her kids.

She has to live with him in the interim I mean.

I have the same issue (as I’ve said upthread!) about the plot issues around prison, as I have professional knowledge, and it’s driving me a bit mad. It’s not the only field I’ve worked in that pops up in dramas and I have sat on my irritation/turned stuff off before so nothing new!

The text TLR gets on the smuggled phone, could this be from Neil? I’m not sure the shop he works in would be classed as a newsagents but it could be.

Definitely think there’s a link with TLR and Neil.

Claire seems to be a vulnerable person and my thinking is she’s either being talked into it by Neil, and she thinks she’s doing the right thing for everyone. She said to Catherine outside in the garden something like ‘everything’s been good recently’ which made me wonder if she’s justifying her actions.

Or, just because she’s sat in a cafe, could she still think Neil and Ryan are off shopping and someone was pretending to be her on the first visit, but the consequent visits she genuinely thinks they are off shopping together…

I’m finding myself cogitating over the skydiving gift to Ryan. Given by Daniel and Ann, yes? How does it fit into the puzzle? Because surely they would take him, rather than Clare and Neil - so it couldn’t be cover for a different trip? Unless D&A were in on the deception.

Aaargh!

For anyone interested in speculation and wild theories I’d recommend the Shrine podcast for this week. It’s entitled ‘Tiny Arse phone’ in honour of the likely way TLR keeps the Polly pocket phone hidden in the slammer 😂

Interesting theory about the image of a fuel can in the opening credits, Alison mentioning the lack of sprinklers in the building she now lives in (where the cuckoo’d woman fell from the dodgy windows that shouldn’t open that far) and the fact that the OCG is now into development and securing lucrative govt contracts…. A Grenfell-style storyline?

That point about the sprinklers is one I missed - well spotted, that wumman!

The pharmacist was looking for a flat for Jo wasn't he? Perhaps he'll rent one in that dodgy block ...