List of Happy Valley episodes
Appearance
Happy Valley is a British crime drama television series created by Sally Wainwright and produced by Red Production Company. The first series of six episodes started airing on BBC One in the United Kingdom on 29 April 2014. It was released on Netflix in the United States and Canada on 20 August 2014.[1] A second series of six episodes started airing on BBC One on 9 February 2016[2] and was made available on Netflix in the US later that year.
Series 3 will air in 2021 or 2022 depending on when they are able to film.
Series overview
Series | Episodes | Originally aired | Ave. UK viewers (in millions)[3] | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
First aired | Last aired | ||||
1 | 6 | 29 April 2014 | 3 June 2014 | 8.21 | |
2 | 6 | 9 February 2016 | 15 March 2016 | 9.37 |
Episodes
Series 1 (2014)
No. overall |
Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | UK viewers (millions[4]) Sourced directly from BARB | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | "Episode One" | Euros Lyn | Sally Wainwright | 29 April 2014 | 8.64 | |
Catherine Cawood is a sergeant in the Calder Valley in West Yorkshire that is riddled with a drug culture that is daunting to tackle. She lives with her sister, Clare, a recovering heroin addict, and is bringing up her eight-year-old grandson, Ryan. Whilst visiting Ryan's teacher regarding the boy's behavioural problems, Catherine reveals that his father is a man called Tommy Lee Royce, who raped her daughter Becky. Catherine believes that the rape was what drove her daughter to suicide shortly after giving birth. Kevin Weatherill is an accountant in a large company run by his late father's best friend, Nevison Gallagher. When Nevison refuses to raise Kevin's pay so that he can afford to send his daughters to a better school, he devises a plot with local thug Ashley Cowgill to kidnap Nevison's daughter, Ann, and hold her for ransom. Cowgill involves two of his employees, Lewis Whippey and Royce, but demands more money than planned thus causing Kevin's scheme to backfire. After Nevison changes his mind and agrees pay both of Kevin's daughters' school fees, Kevin calls Cowgill to cancel their plans, but it is too late: Ann has already been kidnapped by Whippey and Royce. Kevin travels to the police station and begins to make a statement to Catherine anonymously, but Catherine records his number plate when he drives off after changing his mind. | ||||||
2 | "Episode Two" | Euros Lyn | Sally Wainwright | 6 May 2014 | 7.62 | |
Overcome with guilt, Kevin confesses everything to his wife, Jenny, who urges him not to take his cut of the ransom money though he is reluctant to refuse it. Nevison asks Kevin to help deliver the ransom money to the kidnappers without alerting the police (at Cowgill's request), so Kevin delivers the first portion in person. When checking on Ann, Whippey learns that Royce has raped her. After spotting Royce but quickly losing track of him, Catherine seeks the help of local businesses to find him. She later receives a call saying that Royce has been spotted and then sees him through the window of the house where, unbeknownst to her, Ann is being held. Royce informs Cowgill, who in turn tells Kevin that police appear to have some interest in the house. Meanwhile, Catherine grows impatient with her ex-husband Richard and his refusal to accept Ryan as his grandson. | ||||||
3 | "Episode Three" | Euros Lyn | Sally Wainwright | 13 May 2014 | 7.69 | |
Young police officer and Catherine's protégé, Kirsten McAskill, pulls over a speeding van being driven by Whippey. After asking him to open the back door (where Ann is being held temporarily), Kirsten is murdered by Royce. Cowgill panics and fears being caught to the point of contemplating abandoning the plot altogether. Nevison's wife Helen urges him to inform the police of the kidnapping, but he refuses due to being fearful that disobeying the kidnappers would further endanger Ann. Whippey demonstrates compassion towards Ann, but tells her that he feels that he can't help her. As Catherine struggles to come to terms with Kirsten's death (for which she blames herself), she has flashbacks to when her daughter died. She later returns to the house where she saw Royce, breaks in, and finds it empty, but discovers evidence of the kidnapping. She then prioritises her pursuit of him. | ||||||
4 | "Episode Four" | Sally Wainwright | Sally Wainwright | 20 May 2014 | 8.33 | |
After Cowgill had ordered Royce to "dispose" of Ann, Royce chose to keep her in his mother's cellar instead rather than kill her. Helen and Nevison finally inform the police about the kidnapping, but Catherine says that it is unlikely that Ann will be released alive. He tells Catherine and Phil Crabtree, a Detective Inspector with the National Crime Agency, that Kevin has been delivering the money to service stations and that the kidnappers specifically requested for Kevin to so; this alarms Catherine because of her earlier encounter with him in the police station. Royce runs into Catherine outside Ryan's school, but when she warns Royce to stay away from them, he tells Ryan that he is his father. Catherine then visits Royce's mother only to find Ann being held captive in the cellar. However, Royce returns before Ann is freed and overpowers Catherine, but she and Ann manage to escape. | ||||||
5 | "Episode Five" | Tim Fywell | Sally Wainwright | 27 May 2014 | 8.10 | |
Catherine fights for her life in hospital after Royce's attack, which police are treating as attempted murder of a police officer. Royce informs Cowgill that Ann has escaped, so Cowgill cuts off contact with him and Whippey, who then become fugitives. After questioning, Kevin is arrested on suspicion of "abduction and demanding money with menaces" when detectives learn that he was lying about where the money had been delivered. Cowgill is later arrested for the same offence, but is released after confessing to the police about the large drug smuggling trade he was part of and agrees to put himself and his family into witness protection. Catherine learns of all this while in hospital and also that the white van involved in the murder of Offc. Kirsten McAskill is registered to Cowgill. Ann confesses to her that Royce raped her and asks Catherine to inform Nevison, but not Helen. After pulling through, Catherine begins to suffer from depression after learning Royce is still at large and that she missed Kirsten's funeral. Royce and Whippey hide in a flat owned by Brett McKendrick, a friend of Whippey's. After police search the flat, Royce overhears Whippey tell Brett that he is not responsible for murdering Kirsten, for attacking Catherine, or for raping Ann and recommends that they turn Royce in to the police. Royce ends up stabbed after murdering both of his accomplices. He then assumes a disguise to hide from the police in Hebden Bridge. | ||||||
6 | "Episode Six" | Tim Fywell | Sally Wainwright | 3 June 2014 | 8.78 | |
Clare invites family and friends to a birthday party for an acquiescing Catherine, but tensions rise when Daniel lets slip some information about her now-deceased daughter and Royce's relationship thereby implying that Catherine's assessment of Becky's rape leading to her suicide may be incorrect. Cowgill is shot dead the day before he is to enter witness protection with the police assuming that he was killed by someone involved in the drug trade. Royce camps in an unused narrowboat and eventually finds Ryan walking alone on his way home from school. Royce takes him back to the boat for a chat, but later Ryan invites along a friend for a visit the next day, which Clare finds out via his friend's mother. On the following day, Royce plans to abduct and abscond with Ryan, but Catherine spots her grandson's bicycle outside the boat and finally apprehends Royce after hearing Ryan scream for help. |
Series 2 (2016)
No. overall |
Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | UK viewers (millions)[5] Sourced directly from BARB | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
7 | "Episode One" | Sally Wainwright | Sally Wainwright | 9 February 2016 | 9.75 | |
Whilst out solving a case of sheep rustling, Catherine discovers the decomposed body of Lynn Dewhurst, Tommy Lee Royce's mother, hidden in a garage, on a local estate. Dewhurst was raped and murdered before her death some weeks before, with the time of death unable to be precisely determined. To her irritation, Catherine is treated as a suspect in Dewhurst's murder because of her relation to Royce, and Catherine having threatened her after an altercation involving Ryan. She is asked to provide alibis for the times of death of two other murders in circumstances similar to Dewhurst's. In the meantime, she is helping Ann Gallagher, recently recruited as a PCSO. Police begin to suspect a serial killer is behind the murders, and Detective Superintendent Andy Shepherd and Detective Inspector Jodie Shackleton are called in to take charge of the case. An imprisoned Tommy Lee Royce is informed of his mother's death, and is consoled by a female visitor, to whom he accuses Catherine of the murder. Clare bumps into old friend Neil Ackroyd, who has recently moved to Hebden Bridge and works in the local corner shop, and Catherine takes in her son Daniel after he is thrown out by his wife; as a result, he and Ryan begin to form a bond. Detective Sergeant John Wadsworth tries to break up with his girlfriend Vicky Fleming after she unexpectedly turns up at the house he shares with his wife and children. During a last drink together, John is drugged and wakes up the following morning without any memory of the previous evening. Later that day, Fleming threatens to send out compromising pictures of John unless he either pays her a weekly sum of money or leaves his wife and children. | ||||||
8 | "Episode Two" | Sally Wainwright | Sally Wainwright | 16 February 2016 | 9.16 | |
Whilst remaining a suspect in the Lynn Dewhurst investigation, Catherine successfully ensures 21 female victims of human trafficking are taken to safe houses. One of them, Ilinka, is given refuge with Catherine’s neighbour Winnie. With vital information on those behind the trafficking, Ilinka reluctantly speaks to the police, and the identity of one of the murder victims is revealed. After talking with Ilinka, Andy Shepherd tells Catherine that she fears she has been followed, and security features are installed in Winnie's house. Tommy Lee Royce is given permission to attend his mother's funeral accompanied by police, which is also attended by Catherine, and the woman who visited Royce in prison. The visitor is revealed to be Frances Wealand, who is hired as a new teaching assistant at Ryan's school. Under the guise of having left his wife, John visits Vicky Fleming to encourage her to delete the images of him. In an argument, John attacks and kills her. Clare and Neil begin to develop a romantic relationship and learn that they are both recovering alcoholics, but Clare relapses at Helen's funeral, causing an argument with Catherine. | ||||||
9 | "Episode Three" | Neasa Hardiman | Sally Wainwright | 23 February 2016 | 9.18 | |
Catherine reconciles with Clare, but is instructed by her superiors to see a therapist. Vicky's body is discovered (and her identity uncovered by Ann), and it is revealed John burned down Vicky's flat and mutilated her in order to stage the murder as the work of the unknown serial killer. He also confesses to Ann that his wife has been having an affair. Catherine is called to the site of the apparent suicide of one of Ilinka's slave-masters, which Ilinka suggests is murder. Frances Wealand begins to groom Ryan in his reading classes, encouraging him to build a relationship with his father, and continues to visit Tommy Lee Royce in prison. | ||||||
10 | "Episode Four" | Neasa Hardiman | Sally Wainwright | 1 March 2016 | 9.20 | |
Catherine interviews a prostitute who has survived being attacked and raped by Sean Balmforth, who is subsequently arrested and charged with the four murders (Fleming, Dewhurst, and two other prostitutes). He later denies knowing or coming into contact with any of the four women. On Ryan's birthday he receives a lavish present - left on the doorstep - supposedly from his father, which Catherine furiously throws away. Frances later suggests to Ryan that the present from his father was an indication of Royce begging for forgiveness. On a visit, Royce instructs Frances to murder Catherine. Daryl Garrs, a vulnerable young farmer, is arrested for the assault with an offensive weapon of three men after being provoked. Meanwhile, John's wife throws him out, and Neil tells Clare he knew Vicky Fleming and was "humiliated" by her. | ||||||
11 | "Episode Five" | Sally Wainwright | Sally Wainwright | 8 March 2016 | 9.10 | |
Sean is released after another body is found during his remand, and the investigation reopens. Catherine is forced to arrest Neil because of drunken behaviour in public, and he later apologised and plans to take good care of Clare. Catherine discovers that Frances bought and delivered the birthday present and is encouraging Ryan to contact his father. Daryl Garrs confesses to his mother Alison that he is responsible for the killings, and to avoid him having to spend time in prison, Alison fatally shoots him. | ||||||
12 | "Episode Six" | Sally Wainwright | Sally Wainwright | 15 March 2016 | 9.80 | |
Catherine visits the Garrs' farm, and finds Daryl dead and Alison barely alive after an overdose. Alison confesses she is behind her son's death, whereupon Catherine reluctantly arrests her. Alison also tells of Daryl's insistence that he was not responsible for the murder of Vicky Fleming. Catherine approaches Ryan's school with her discovery about Frances, who is revealed to be Frances Drummond, a pharamacist from Scotland, working as a teaching assistant under the false identity of a deceased Cecily Wealand. She is later arrested for fraud, with Catherine vowing to bring her to justice for her targeting of Ryan. Catherine visits Drummond and tells her side of the story, and in the process sees that Drummond has been misled and indoctrinated by Tommy Lee Royce, to the point where Drummond believes they are engaged. Piecing together Neil's account of Vicky Fleming's blackmailing, information from Ann about John's strange behaviour, and an incident of violence from John's wife's boyfriend, Catherine determines John is the killer. When she approaches him he flees to the edge of a bridge, where he confesses to the murder, but jumps to his death soon afterwards. To tie up the series, Drummond learns of numerous other women Tommy Lee Royce is engaged to, and Royce is banned from receiving visitors in prison; nonetheless, a letter written by Ryan and sent to him via Drummond reaches him. |
References
- ^ "Acclaimed British Thriller Happy Valley Is Coming To Netflix". cinemablend.com. Retrieved 2016-01-22.
- ^ Cristinad (20 January 2016). "1 Happy Valley Series 2 February 2016 on BBC One" (PDF). Retrieved 2016-01-22.
- ^ Series 1 based on 7 day data. Series 2 based on 28 day data.
- ^ Based on 7 day data
- ^ Based on 28 day data