*Warning: Contains spoilers for Happy Valley series three, episode six.*
After nine years and three seasons, Happy Valley has finally come to a close, with everyone’s favourite no-nonsense officer Catherine Cawood (Sarah Lancashire) finally getting her duel with insane criminal Tommy Lee Royce (James Norton).
After breaking into Catherine’s house and planning to set it on fire, the critically injured Tommy changed his mind about his plans, including killing Catherine, after seeing photos of his son Ryan (Rhys Connah) with his mother, Catherine’s daughter Becky, and realising he had been blessed with a good life.
Instead, he has a revealing heart-to-heart/argument with Catherine before dousing himself with gasoline and sets himself on fire, dying offscreen in hospital news sent to Catherine by text message.
However, despite all of that, series actor Norton has opened up on his time portraying Tommy and offered his perspective that he doesn’t see him as a psychopath, but ‘just extremely wounded’.
As the programme ended, Norton rushed to social media to share a happy snapshot with his co-star Lancashire, signalling the end of their time on the famous TV show.
He then spoke up about his personal sentiments for the character in the new interview, describing how ‘heartbreaking’ the conclusion had been.
‘I have been with him for ten years, I feel deeply sorry for him. I feel immense pity and empathy and I sort of really love him,’ the 37-year-old shared.
Discussing the ‘constant question’ over whether or not Tommy is a psychopath, Norton added to GQ: ‘My final conclusion on Tommy is that I don’t think he is a psychopath, he’s just incredibly damaged. The fact that he can find this incredible love for Ryan over the last seven years, that is what drives him, and all of this plan to go to Marbella.’
The actor reasons that Tommy could have gone on his own but he had ‘this fairytale dream of having a house, a job, and living together as father and son’.
Norton also said that the more they went through the series the more he felt ‘able to tap into [Tommy’s] humanity’.
The Grantchester and War & Peace actor also addressed prior claims that his character was not a psychopath, admitting that he had discussed it with production personnel, as well as his co-star Lancashire and the show’s creator, Sally Wainwright.
‘The hints were almost laid in the very first series, in episode five, when he’s just been stabbed and he’s facing his own mortality, his own death.
‘And he’s sitting in that high rise and he bursts into tears. He thinks, “S**t, I’ve wasted my life and if I had a different childhood maybe I could have been something in me.” And if you think back to there, that was where Sally was already planning and carving out this ending I think, because there is humanity there.’
Viewers praised the end of the enormously popular TV drama, calling it a “masterpiece” and “Shakespearean,” and expecting award victories for the series and its stars.
Happy Valley is available to watch now on BBC iPlayer.