"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil. For thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me" - Psalm 23.
After a seven year gap (or one day for me), Happy Valley returned. The third series (written and created, as ever, by Sally Wainwright and directed by Wainwright as well as Patrick Harkins and Fergus O'Brien) finds the usual suspects, and a few new ones, embroiled in a bleak yet fascinating world of betrayal, criminality, and pain. In fact Catherine Cawood's (Sarah Lancashire) first task in the series is to go and look at a human skeleton that's been unearthed near some remote lake.
Catherine's now only a few weeks from retirement, she's bought a Land Rover and is planning to drive across the Himalayas, but, of course, we all know her last few weeks in the job won't be easy. Not with the never ending cast of criminals that seem to have made Halifax and the surrounding towns their own and not with the issue of Tommy Lee Royce (James Norton) refusing to go away.
Tommy's still in prison. But he's been moved to Sheffield. He's grown his hair, he's learning Spanish (!), and he's gained a pretty nasty scar on his forehead. Worse than that, the prison guards have him got up in some kind of jumpsuit that wouldn't look out of place in Squid Game. Of more lasting concern, he's being charged with a historical murder and looks likely to have his already very long jail term extended.
There's hope he'll help bring down the shady criminal Knezevic family. His 'son', Ryan (Rhys Connah), is sixteen now. A young man who's not doing great at school but still loves football (though would rather he didn't have to be the goalkeeper). He's a fairly ordinary teenage lad in many respects but has he been visiting Tommy in prison? And if so who's taking him and why has nobody said anything to Catherine?
He also seems to have become very attached to the phrase "revenge is a dish best served cold" which may, or may not, be a red herring. It certainly had me confused. Catherine's sister, Clare (Siobhan Finneran), is still with Neil (Con O'Neill) and they seem to be doing okay whilst Catherine's son, Daniel (Karl Davies), has hooked up with Ann Gallagher (Charlie Murphy) and they've moved in together.
Catherine's ex-husband, Richard (Derek Riddell), and his partner Ros (Kelly Harrison) are going through a bad patch. Not helped by Ros looking for the solution to her problems at the bottom of a wine glass. It seems that Richard may be sniffing around Catherine with a chance of getting back together but would she, potentially, be open to such an offer?
Richard's also been approached by The Guardian to do some digging on the Knezevics. One of whom, Darius (Alec Secareanu), is looking to become a local councillor. Alison Garrs (Susan Lynch) has been released from prison for the manslaughter of her son, she's helping fix Catherine's Land Rover, and is going for a job driving forklifts for Ann's dad, Nevison (George Costigan).
Families are pretty complicated, and intertwined, in these small Yorkshire towns it seems. At least the fictional versions of them. But there's always room to bring some more scoundrels and wretches in and the third series of Happy Valley doesn't disappoint us there. Ryan's teacher, Rob Hepworth (Mark Stanley), is a piece of work from the off.
He's knocking his wife, Joanne (Mollie Winnard), about, she's covered in bruises, he's put a padlock on the fridge in their house, and he's forcibly estranged his wife from her parents and friends. He may, or may not be, what Ryan indelicately, and homophobically, calls a "shirt-lifting arse bandit" but he's certainly an absolutely vile specimen. He gives off, to me, something of a Barry Bennell vibe.
Not a good look. Even his daughter, Poppy (Bonnie Stott), asks her mother "why doesn't Daddy like you?". Poppy refuses to ever take her coat off. Faisal Bhatti (Amit Shah) lives just up the road from the Hepworths and he is to the third series of Happy Valley what Steve Pemberton's Kevin Weatherill was to series one and Kevin Doyle's John Wadsworth was to series two. A morally compromised man who is in way over his depth and is stressed to the max about it.
It doesn't tend to end well for these characters in Happy Valley. Faisal's a pharmacist but one that is quite happy to operate on the black market if there's enough money in it for him. He supplies Joanne (and others) with illegal prescription drugs, in the form of Diazepam. A course of action that will obviously bring him serious trouble. Quite possibly on several fronts.
The fact there seems to be some sexual history between Faisal and Joanne muddies the waters further. A popular, and highly effective, Happy Valley trick used to heighten the tension when dealing with these troubled characters is to ramp up Ben Foster's ominous score just as the camera closes in on a terrified, nerve wracked, face.
It borders on horror. While business as normal continues at the station (Ishia Bennison's Joyce arranges a collection for Catherine, Inspector Mike Taylor (Rick Warden) and DU Andy Shepherd (Vincent Franklin) remain broadly supportive of her, and Shafiq Shah (Shane Zaza) is promoted from PC to Sergeant) you can never escape the feeling that the whole series, the whole programme - all eighteen hours of it, can only ever end up with a showdown between Catherine and Tommy. But with Ryan, of course, being the key motivation for each of them.
In that respect it's similar to how the makers of Killing Eve kept engineering scenarios in which Eve and Villanelle would have to face each other off. Killing Eve became so ridiculous I gave up after the second series. Happy Valley, thankfully, is far more gripping. A lot more intriguing.
It's not perfect, though. There's a small element of Happy Valley which seems reactionary and conservative (police are (mostly) good, foreigners are (mostly) either criminals or criminal prey, and racism isn't really a big issue at all, that's just a load of woke nonsense). It's a shame (not least when the show is so on the money as regards male toxicity) but, luckily enough, it's a small enough issue I can brush it aside (for now) and leave that to social historians to consider.
I have to stay on to find out how it will end, who will die (you know someone's going to, most likely several people), and even if Catherine and Clare will make it up after a big fall out. Equally, will we ever get to the bottom of how Ryan actually feels? Nobody seems to have bothered asking him at any point. People simply tell him how he should behave and how he should feel.
Happy Valley tackles themes of trust, drug running, drug addiction, revenge, blackmail (of course), misogyny, spousal abuse, and finding the correct emoji for the correct moment when sending a WhatsApp but it's also bold enough to make a few comments about corrupt governments and liars taking power. The last series was shown, it's worth reiterating, in 2016 and we all know what's happened since them.
As we hear Nirvana belt out a gravelly voiced, gut wrenching, rendition of Leadbelly's Where Did You Sleep Last Night we find ourselves feeling sad for some characters, concerned for others, and bewildered by the actions of some of the more, on the surface, decent people. Others simply horrify and appal.
In the end, it is Ann Gallagher's sublime rant that spoke the loudest. Ann, of course, was raped by Tommy Lee Royce in one of the very first episodes. When Ryan defends Tommy, Ann gives him, unremittingly and with both barrels, some painful home truths. Watching it, the pent up emotion and frustration on all sides is palpable. However this nearly decade long saga will end it won't be pretty. But it will be captivating.
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