Unhappy ending for Happy Valley
BBC shocked as star Sarah rules out making third series
I’M AFRAID I have sad news for Happy Valley fans – after two brilliant series, leading lady Sarah Lancashire wants to quit the critically acclaimed BBC crime drama.
According to insiders, her decision means a third series is now in serious jeopardy, even though scriptwriter Sally Wainwright said last week that she wanted to work on new plotlines.
More than seven million viewers tuned in last week to watch Lancashire as feisty Sergeant Catherine Cawood in what it now seems is likely to be her final episode in the Yorkshire-set show.
She revealed on set: ‘It’s the end of the story for Happy Valley. I wouldn’t want it to go to a third series, I really wouldn’t – then it becomes something else.
‘We set out to tell a story and we have told it.
‘The temptation is you see something that is great and you think, “This can run and run and run”, but then it becomes a homogenised, diluted thing.’
Sources say her comments have surprised producers.
One insider tells me: ‘There was going to be a long wait before the third series, as there was between series one and two. But without Sarah will there be any point? Without her there is no show.’
Critics and viewers have been raving about Lancashire’s performance. Wainwright, who also worked with the actress on the BBC’s Last Tango In Halifax, said: ‘I thought Sarah was just amazing, absolutely amazing.’
Actor Richard E. Grant tweeted: ‘Sarah Lancashire in Happy Valley proves herself THE empress of our profession. Utterly brilliant. Awestruck. RESPECT!!!’
And TV presenter Davina McCall declared: ‘I don’t think I could love Sarah Lancashire more if I tried.’ However, there is a small glimmer of hope for fans that Lancashire will perform a U-turn. In a recent interview, she admitted that she was ‘nervous’ about doing a second series of Happy Valley and debated the idea but was eventually won over by Wainwright.
A spokesman for the show said: ‘Sally Wainwright has many other projects that she is working on, but the show was a ratings success and the hope is that it can come back.’