Happy Valley returns for its third and final season tonight (Picture: BBC)
It’s been a long wait to catch up again with the characters of Happy Valley, with the last season airing seven years ago.
But, the much loved series is back on our screens and, like the two that came before it, the third season will contain six episodes.
Writer Sally Wainwright, who has written for Emmerdale and Coronation Street, as well as Last Tango in Halifax, continues to pen the series, so fans can rest assured they’re in for a treat.
This time around, Sergeant Catherine Cawood (Sarah Lancashire) is approaching retirement from the police force when she finds the remains of a gangland murder victim which ultimately leads her back to Tommy Lee Royce (James Norton) – her late daughter’s rapist.
The second season wound up with Tommy locked up behind bars and his son Ryan (Rhys Connah) was curious to learn more about his father.
In a synopsis for season 3, the BBC also revealed that Ryan ‘is now 16 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 (Siobhan Finneran) caught in the middle’.
James Norton returns as Tommy Lee Royce (Picture: PA)
Earlier this week, the first five minutes of the premiere episode was released, which showed Catherine being forced to make a U-turn in her police car after receiving a call about bones.
Parking up at a Yorkshire reservoir, she was shown the human skeleton that has washed up, and the case gets going from there.
Since starting, the entire series has been set in one location.
Where is Happy Valley filmed?
Happy Valley is set in the Calder Valley, West Yorkshire, in Northern England.
Titled after what the local police refer to the area as because of its drug problem, in the series Catherine’s sister Clare is a recovering drug addict herself.
Since the show started filming in 2013, locations like Todmorden, Luddenden, Mytholmroyd, Bradford, Keighley, Sowerby Bridge, Hebden Bridge, and Heptonstall have all been seen on screen.
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Huddersfield, Halifax, Bradford, Leeds and other West Yorkshire cities have also been mentioned, but are not main filming locations.
A former police station (Station Road, Sowerby Bridge) has been used as the set for Catherine’s workplace, while her home and local pub are based in Hebden Bridge.
The prison scenes were filmed at Oakham Enterprise Park in Rutland.
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When is season 3 out?
After last airing in March 2016, Happy Valley returns on Sunday, January 1 at 9pm on BBC One.
It will also be available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
Happy Valley starts tonight, New Year’s Day, on BBC One and iPlayer at 9pm.
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MORE : James Norton promises Happy Valley ending to final series that ‘does not disappoint’
Sergeant Catherine Cawood is finally back on our screens.
