
*Warning: Contains spoilers for Happy Valley season 3, episode 4.*
Last night’s Happy Valley cliffhanger, in which Tommy Lee Royce (James Norton) planned a daring escape, has real-life inspiration.
Royce flees the courtroom and escapes into the city after being dragged into court to be sentenced for another felony on top of the one he was already serving.
It’s a shocking occurrence that has fans of the police drama series fearful that Sergeant Catherine Cawood’s life could be in grave danger in the final episodes.
Catherine, played by Sarah Lancashire, cautioned her coworkers that Royce may try something, but her warnings proved futile.
As if the shock of something so daring happening on TV wasn’t enough, it turns out Royce’s daring escape has a real-world counterpart.
A 2019 murder trial in Russia was disturbed when the accused, 18-year-old Leonid Greyser, climbed out of the defendant’s glass box, according to Den of Geek.
Greyser attempts to flee by climbing out of the glass box and then up through the ceiling, which was captured on film at the time.
However, he was unable to flee, as nearby officers were able to subdue and collect him, and Greyser was later proven guilty.
A defendant in the borough of Tameside observed a 26-year-old man attempt to climb out of his detention chamber in a similar case in Manchester last year.

He made it out of the building and onto the street, but was quickly apprehended and returned to custody later that day.
As implausible as Tommy’s plot may appear to TV viewers, real people have attempted to evade police custody in similar ways.
Sunday’s hour-long episode left viewers with only two episodes left until Happy Valley concludes, and many fans are fearful of a potentially terrible outcome.
Many crucial storyline factors are still up in the air: Tommy, what else did you do to Becky? Will Richard bring down the Kneevi’s? Will Faisal get away with murdering Joanna?
And, of course, the huge issue hovering over everything else is whether Catherine will survive now that her biggest opponent is back on the loose.
Watch Happy Valley on BBC iPlayer.