Month: February 2023

Sophie Rundle has an apology to make (Picture: BBC)

*Warning: This article contains spoilers for the entire series of Happy Valley.

Sophie Rundle may only have survived a handful of Happy Valley episodes but her exit is still etched in fans’ memories as one of the most gruesome deaths on TV ever.

The actress, 34, played officer Kirsten McAskill for three episodes of the first series until Tommy Lee Royce (James Norton) reversed his car into her and then drove over her again just to make sure he’d done his job properly.

It was grim to watch, a real rug pull up there with the ‘red wedding’ and Bradley falling off The Queen Vic.

However, to film it was ‘very unexciting’.

‘The car slowly reversed towards me and then it reversed over a sandbag,’ Sophie told Radio Times, but a decade later people are still asking her about it.

Sophie only starred n Happy Valley for three episodes – but she left her mark (Picture: BBC)

Kirsten was one of Tommy’s first victims (Picture: BBC/Lookout Point/Matt Squire)

Read Sophie’s full interview in this week’s Radio Times

‘I’m fine, no one did a three-point turn over me,’ she teased. ‘It’s really stayed with people, I think because it’s so brutal.

‘I’d like to apologise for traumatising the entire nation. I feel sorry for my parents who had to watch that.’

Since then Sophie has gone on to star in Peaky Blinders, Gentleman Jack and is now leading a new thriller, The Diplomat, for Alibi.

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As for Happy Valley, Sally Wainwright’s nail-biting police drama easily became the most watched TV show of 2023.

Its final episode saw Catherine Cawood have the stand-off we spent three series waiting for – and it did not disappoint.

Happy Valley is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.  Read Sophie’s full interview in this week’s Radio Times.

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