Happy Valley Season 3: Release date, trailer, cast, plot, more

❘ Updated: 2022-12-23T11:08:01

BBC

Here’s everything we know about Season 3 of critically acclaimed BBC drama Happy Valley, from its release date and trailer to cast, plot, and more.

Set in Calder Valley, West Yorkshire, and starring Sarah Lancashire as no-nonsense police sergeant Catherine Cawood, crime drama Happy Valley debuted on BBC One in April 2014.

Created and written by Sally Wainwright, the show received critical acclaim and huge ratings, going on to win the BAFTA for Best Drama Series in 2015.

Season 2 debuted in 2016, while Season 3 – the final series – launches on BBC One at the start of 2023. Here’s everything you need to know about the end of Happy Valley.

Happy Valley Season 3 release date: When is it on BBC One?

Season 3 of Happy Valley starts at 9pm on New Year’s Day – January 1, 2023.

As with previous seasons, the series consists of six episodes which will be broadcast weekly on Sundays, meaning the last ever Happy Valley will hit on February 5.

There’s no word yet on when it will air on AMC+ in America, but we’ll update this article when we get a date.

Happy Valley Season 3 trailer: Is there a trailer?

Yes, there is a trailer for the belated Season 3 of Happy Valley. You can watch it below.

Catherine’s grandson Ryan – played by Rhys Connah – plays a major role in the new series, and the reason for the huge gap between seasons was so they wouldn’t have to recast the character.

As Sally Wainwright told GQ: “Leaving the gap between the different series was intentional. It was to give Ryan time to be old enough to have some agency in the world, to have had time to develop opinions.

“I think it would have been crazy to re-cast him, I personally felt really attached to Rhys, because we’ve almost watched him grow up. From the audience’s point of view, I don’t think they’d have had the same emotional connection with someone else, so I think it was really important to bring back all the same people.”

Happy Valley Season 3 cast: Who’s in the BBC show?

Happy Valley stars Sarah Lancashire as Police Sergeant Catherine Cawood. Other members of the cast include…

Siobhan Finneran as Clare Cartwright, Catherine’s sister
Rhys Connah as Ryan Cawood, Catherine’s grandson
Charlie Murphy as Ann Gallagher, a police officer
James Norton as Tommy Lee Royce, the show’s villainous antagonist
Derek Riddell as Richard Cawood, Catherine’s ex-husband

Happy Valley Season 3 plot: What is the BBC show about?

The official BBC synopsis for Happy Valley Season 3 is as follows…

When Catherine discovers the remains of a gangland murder victim in a drained reservoir, it sparks a chain of events that leads her straight back to Tommy Lee Royce. Her grandson, Ryan, is now sixteen and has ideas of his own about the kind of relationship he wants to have with the man Catherine refuses to acknowledge as his father, leaving Catherine’s sister Clare caught in the middle. In another part of the valley, a local pharmacist gets in over his head when a neighbour is arrested.

As for what the show is about, Sally Wainwright recently told the BBC: “It is not a police show, it’s a show about Catherine, who happens to be a police officer. It’s not a police procedural, it’s not a crime show. It’s really about Catherine and about what happened to her in the past and this weird crooked relationship she has with this man who affected her life so badly.”

That’s everything we know about Season 3 of Happy Valley. In the meantime, check out our other upcoming TV hubs below: