Happy Valley season 3 looks set to be full of drama but how many episodes will there be in the final series?

The teaser trailer for Happy Valley Season 3 has just been released by the BBC and fans cannot wait for the upcoming season, so here is everything you need to know ahead of the launch.

Happy Valley season 3 is set to launch in the New Year and fans cannot wait for the latest season of this fantastic drama that hasn't been on our screens since 2016!

When Happy Valley was first released in April 2014, viewers were immediately hooked by this incredible police drama that followed the life of Catherine Cawood, played by Sarah Lancashire. The series was adored by fans and the second series had an equally warm reception when it debuted just two years later in 2016. 

However, fans have had a long six-year wait since the last series and have been uncertain about whether another season is on the cards. Thankfully, the BBC announced that they will be concluding the drama series with a third and final season that is set to be released very soon.

So here is everything you need to know about Happy Valley Season 3...

What is the plot of Happy Valley season 3?

The official synopsis explains that once again Catherine and Tommy Lee Royce clash. "In this final series of six episodes, Catherine (Sarah Lancashire) discovers the remains of a gangland murder victim in a drained reservoir, and this sparks a chain of events that leads her straight back to Tommy Lee Royce (James Norton)," reads the plot synopsis. 

The story will also develop Ryan's relationship with his father. "Her grandson, Ryan (Rhys Connah), is now 16 and has ideas of his own about the kind of relationship he wants to have with the man Catherine refuses to acknowledge as his father, leaving Catherine’s sister Clare (Siobhan Finneran) caught in the middle. In another part of the valley, a local pharmacist gets in over his head when a neighbour is arrested," it concludes.

Happy Valley Cast

Sarah Lancashire (Lark Rise to Candleford, Coronation Street) is the main character of the series who plays Catherine Cawood. She is the lead detective and main policewoman who is the focus of this series. Her partner Ann Gallagher is played by Charlie Murphy (Peaky Blinders). Ann was a kidnap victim in the first series but later became a policewoman after surviving the ordeal.

Siobhan Finneran (Downton Abbey, Unforgiven) plays Catherine's sister Clare, who is a recovering alcoholic and addict and lives with Catherine.

The main antagonist of the series is Tommy Lee Royce is played by James Norton (Grantchester, McMafia). Tommy is the man who raped Catherine's daughter Becky and is the father of her child named Ryan. Becky killed herself soon after the birth of her son and Catherine and her sister Clare was left to raise Ryan.

Other characters are welcomed into this series every season and it has yet to be announced who else will be joining the cast. It is likely however that these main characters will be making an appearance once again.

How many episodes will there be in season 3?

Season 3 of Happy Valley will consist of six episodes. It is thought that episodes will continue to air every Sunday for six weeks as series concludes. 

BBC has yet to reveal whether they will release all six episodes on BBC iPlayer so that fans who love to binge, can watch all six episodes on New Year's Day.

Where to watch Happy Valley?

The first two seasons of Happy Valley are available to watch on BBC iplayer. The series was briefly available on Netflix but has since been taken down.

So if you are keen to catch up on the first two seasons before the best place to look is on BBC's own streaming platform that you can enjoy for free so long as you have a TV licence. Alternatively, both seasons are available on Amazon for a price to stream each episode. 

Happy Valley recap

In season 2, Catherine discovered that Ryan's teacher Frances Drummond, played by Shirley Henderson, (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Bridget Jones' Diary) was in love with Tommy Lee Royce and was trying to encourage Ryan to get in contact with him.

Catherine confronted Frances and explained that although Tommy was behind bars, there were plenty of women who were convinced that they were in love with him and Frances was just one of the many fools he had under his spell. 

However, before Frances stopped seeing Tommy in prison, she managed to take a letter Ryan wrote to his father and pass it on to him in prison. This could be a key plotline in the next series as a small connection between Tommy and Ryan was established as the series ended.

Clare finished the season with a boyfriend Neil (played by Con O’Neill), who Catherine had begun to accept, even though she did arrest him in the second series for being drunk and disorderly. 

Catherine was also seeing a therapist and making her way to reconciling her grief surrounding her daughter Becky's suicide.

When is Happy Valley Season 3 out?

On October 26, 2021 BBC announced that there would be a third season of the show. They announced that filming was scheduled to begin in 2022, but a release was not confirmed.

It has now been confirmed that the series will be released on Sunday, January 1, 2023 at 9pm.