Happy Valley

Sarah Lancashire delivers one of the most acclaimed performances in British TV history as Sergeant Catherine Cawood — a Yorkshire police officer holding her fractured family together while facing down a psychopath. Raw, powerful, deeply human, and utterly gripping from first episode to last. The final series left fans genuinely bereft when it ended. Happy Valley is available on BritBox; compare BritBox and Acorn TV if you're deciding between the two.

Ready for an absorbing weekend watch? The complete story spans 18 episodes across three series.

About the show

Sally Wainwright created and wrote every episode of Happy Valley herself, casting Sarah Lancashire as Sergeant Catherine Cawood in a role that won her two BAFTA Television Awards for Best Actress — one in 2017, another for the final series in 2024. James Norton co-starred throughout as Cawood's nemesis, Tommy Lee Royce, in a cat-and-mouse arc spanning three series across nine years, with the very first series winning Best Drama at the 2015 BAFTAs.

The show is set and filmed in the Calder Valley area of West Yorkshire, and follows Catherine as she polices her hometown while raising her grandson Ryan — the son of the man responsible for her daughter's death. Siobhan Finneran co-stars as Catherine's sister Clare. The story unfolds across three series: Series 1 in 2014, Series 2 in 2016 and the third and final series in 2023, following a gap of nearly seven years.

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