Happy ending, Sarge..
Valley heroine cop Catherine deserves rest, & we need one
STAIRS!”, and one of, “DON’T GO INTO YOUR HOUSE ON YOUR OWN – WAIT FOR BACK-UP!” to be added to my charge sheet.
Luckily, the handsome devil was unable to rise for one final assault, leaving Catherine to stride out of her house and down the street like a Marvel superhero… before crumpling in a sobbing heap by a parked car.
Quite why Clare (Siobhan Finneran) suddenly showed up remains a mystery to me. Maybe we should just put it down to sibling intuition.
Anyway, I’m glad she did – because what a scene that was. And what a line Catherine came out with amid the guttural sobs. “We’ve had another bit of a tussle. I won, obviously. I might have singed one of your crocheted blankets though.”
Understatement, self-assuredness and dark humour – Catherine in a nutshell, right there.
That wasn’t the only laugh of the night either. I was delighted by one last piece of police radio banter between Catherine and Joyce.
It was also fitting that newcomer Oliver Huntingdon was rewarded for his fine work playing the Knezevics’ henchman, Ivan. During the first of many police raids he was given a brilliantly funny line. Pleading with the officers, Ivan yelled, “I’m getting married in two hours. My girlfriend is gonna go mad!”
Ivan’s fate was one of a number of loose ends tidied up on the night.
Catherine also took down gang boss Darius Knezevic and fingered murderous drug-dealing pharmacist Faisal Bhatti.
No wonder her superior Andy Shepherd told her, “Most people just bow out quietly on their last day.”
Those last-minute collars were not Catherine’s greatest triumph though.
Notification of that came during
her teafuelled reconciliation with Clare. Confirmation came at the height of the tussle with Tommy.
She told Clare that her grandson Ryan (Rhys Connah) was “just a happy, well-adjusted, pretty flippin’ normal kid”, and followed that up by triumphantly informing his evil jailbird father that Ryan was “a prince”.
Finally. A male character in Happy Valley who isn’t a wrong ‘un.
Sgt Cawood, your work here is done. We thank you for your service.