Older readers may remember a time when people talked about what was on television. Not these days. They ask what’s the best show to binge on Netflix (other overpriced streaming services are available). Long before streaming and even videos became popular we all watched things when they went out on air. I appreciate that television is something enjoyed increasingly only by older people and indeed old people who are pretty well unable to do anything else, but for those of us who remember The Good Old Days (they weren’t), there’s a wonderful glimpse at how things used to be happening on BBC 1 tonight. It’s called Happy Valley.
Tonight’s last ever episode will not attract the 20 odd million who would have watched big shows in the past, but there will be a lot of us tuning in to see how it ends. Will Sgt Catherine Cawood drive off to the Himalayas in her rickety Landrover or will she end up dead, as the show’s villain Tommy Lee Royce is surely certain to be. Probably. Any number of this stellar cast could end up dead. It would hardly be in keeping with the overall tone of the show, or indeed the name of it, if everyone ended up happy ever after. Happy Valley is, after all, an ironic name.
The fact that the third and final season has not gone straight onto the iPlayer player means that we are watching TV the way it used to be. We’ve certainly got used to binge-watching programmes. As I had never seen the first two seasons of Happy Valley, we rattled through the first two brilliant seasons around Christmas, leaving me wondering why the hell I had been so stupid in not watching them before. We tried to binge-watch this season too, by storing-up episodes but the show was so bloody good, we soon gave that up. Now, I cannot wait for tonight.
As you may have guessed, I have got caught up in what could happen, although of course I have no idea. But I do think, on the basis of no evidence whatsoever, this is how it will end:
- Ryan’s dad is actually Rob, the creepy sports teacher (Catherine keeps going on about how Tommy isn’t Ryan’s dad…)
- Tommy will go mad when he finds out and kill people, probably Catherine, Clare’s boyfriend Neil as well as Catherine’s ex Richard
- Or Alison Garrs will blow Tommy’s brains out, as she did with her own wrong ‘un son and go to the Himalayas with Catherine in order to maintain the Landrover en route.
- Tommy will die, probably suicide
In other words, I haven’t got a clue. And I’m glad I don’t have a clue. At least, unlike with most other shows, I’ve mainly been able to follow the plot lines.
Inevitably, there have been complaints that the show is not realistic, that the plot lines are far-fetched and all the rest of it. But I have seen, if not the actual Happy Valley itself, many of the characters, albeit in not such an exaggerated way in dark, drizzly places like Happy Valley. What I am trying to say is that the show has managed to capture the feel of fading working class England. And in Sarah Lancashire, we have an actor whose talents are close to greatness and who talks in language we recognise.
This is largely because of Sally Wainwright’s writing, which has left us waiting for a final episode few of us can predict. Almost anything could happen tonight and my evening is entirely based around what happens from 9.00pm tonight. I can’t wait and there’s not many shows I have said that about in recent years.
