*Warning: This article contains spoilers from Happy Valley season 3 episode 6*
Sally Wainwright, the creator of Happy Valley, has stated that Sarah Lancashire is to blame for the drama’s conclusion.
The series’ last episode aired on Sunday, becoming the most-watched BBC broadcast in 2023, with a record-breaking 7.5 million viewers turning in.
After tussling for Ryan Cawood’s (Rhys Connah) affections, Catherine Cawood (Lancashire) and Tommy Lee Royce (James Norton) faced up in a dramatic battle in the climax.
Rather than killing his arch-nemesis, Tommy opted to put himself on fire, leaving Catherine unharmed and free to schedule her dream vacation to the Himalayas.
However, James, 37, previously said that the finale was different from the original screenplay, which had been revised when Sarah’spoke up.’
Sally, who also wrote Gentleman Jack, appeared on Newsnight with Victoria Derbyshire on Monday, saying she was pleased the Coronation Street actress expressed her worries.
She explained: ‘Sarah is to thank for that ending, in many ways, because I wrote the first draft, and everybody seemed quite happy with it and then she made it clear that she wasn’t happy with it.
‘The Christmas before she came up to my house, and she spent all day talking about it and she gave me some really good notes.
‘So everything got pushed a bit further in that episode and it was all thanks to Sarah.’
Sally continued that ‘nobody knows scripts better than the actors’ as they have to get into the ‘real granular detail.
‘It was a great privilege to have the opinion of someone who knew the scripts almost better than I do because she put so much into it; so much thought into it,’ she added.
‘It was a really fabulous conversation – she was literally here all day at my house. And we just spent all day really talking it through and it is nice that we kind of worked it through together. Her performance is just off the scales.’
McMafia actor James has also lauded the highly anticipated conclusion, describing it as his “ideal ending.”
He told GQ: ‘There’s been such hype. So, I’m like, “What if it falls at the last hurdle?”. But the ending was perfect, in a Sally Wainwright sort of way.
‘It was fireworks, but it wasn’t fireworks. It was sitting over a kitchen table, and that is where Happy Valley really thrived.
‘That’s the heart of the show. Cups of tea over kitchen tables. It’s not jumping off cliffs, and guns and fireworks. It’s gentle, it’s domestic, it’s human.’
Newsnight BBC Two at 10.30pm.