REVIEW Happy Valley (S3 E3/6)

It seems barely comprehensible, but we’re already at the halfway stage of this superior British crime drama.

And, as episodes go, it was a belter. An absolute tour de force of writing, character development and depth, acting and action. Much has been said already around social media about this instalment and about how good it was, and I really don’t have anything more to add. You just have to sit back and marvel at each scene, its construction and execution.

At the end of episode two, we were left on tenterhooks after learning that it was likely that Clare and Neil had been taking Ryan to visit his father in prison. Sure enough, Catherine engineered a way to secretly follow them on a Saturday morning, and she soon found evidence that her sister and her partner had gone behind her back.

What followed was a scene for the ages. Catherine telephoned Clare while she was sitting in a cafe, the latter’s face flickering and then dropping with dread at the call. Catherine gently probed, said goodbye and then hung up. Clare breathed a sigh of relief, only for her world to come crashing down when Catherine came striding into the cafe and plonked herself down on the chair opposite. In the ensuing, difficult conversation there were tears from both, accusations, explanations… it was human drama of the highest order.

The most interesting thing I took from this conversation was Clare’s transformation through it. In the beginning, she was guilt-ridden and remorseful, but as the conversation evolved she fought back – gently, and then with a bit more force – and told Catherine that perhaps it was her who needed to take a look at herself; it was her that had to let go.

Letting go. A concept that Catherine obviously finds difficult, especially when it comes to her daughter, her daughter’s terrible fate and her relationship with Ryan. The scene highlighted human beings’ territoriality and skewed ownership of a situation or of a relationship with another human being. Or, in this case, purpose – for 16 years it has been Catherine’s purpose to look after Ryan, to keep the memory of her daughter alive via Ryan, and her duty to keep him safe and to make sure he doesn’t go down the same road as his father. But what happens when duty turns into reliance or even selfishness? What happens when duty and a burning, singular purpose turns into dependency?

These are the difficult questions that Catherine Cawood is facing, as she tries to navigate the flaring, renergised grief, horror, post-traumatic stress and everything else that Ryan’s blossoming into a young man brings back into sharp focus.

Another scene, shimmering with brilliance: Catherine confronting Ryan on Clare’s doorstep, the latter knowing that his grandmother knows he’s been visiting his dad. It becomes painfully evident that Ryan doesn’t know the full horror of his mother’s demise, and their conversation contains more staggering writing and dialogue – not least when Catherine momentarily breaks away from her pleas to Ryan to stop seeing his dad to ask him what he’s having for tea, and that if it’s stew it’ll be fine to leave for a while.

But Ryan wants to know more. He wants to know everything – the everything that Catherine has tried so hard to shield from his young eyes.

All this and we haven’t even mentioned Richard’s guilt over what happened to his and Catherine’s relationship immediately post Becky, Neil and his interesting character, the post-traumatic stress Ann is feeling because of Ryan’s actions, Catherine’s brush with the Knezevics, and the ‘side’ story of Faisal and the sickening, explosive violence he meted out to Joanna (a very Fargo moment, and another instance of warped dependency). Oh, and we should mention Ryan’s reconciliation with Hepworth – just before he (probably) gets fingered for his wife’s murder.

What is it with Ryan and bad boy father figures?

Paul Hirons

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 5 out of 5.

READ MORE: OUR EPISODE ONE REVIEW

READ MORE: OUR EPISODE TWO REVIEW

Happy Valley is shown on BBC One and BBC iPlayer in the UK