Happy Valley’s James Norton reveals ‘top secret’ scenes in the finale

Happy Valley actor James Norton said that the shows final scenes were kept top secret from the rest of the cast.

Fans of the BBC drama, Happy Valley, came to the end of the emotional roller-coaster ride as it drew to a close on Sunday evening, February 5th. After nine years and three series, it all ended in Sergeant Catherine Cawood’s (played by Sarah Lancashire) kitchen as she and evil nemesis Tommy Lee Royce (played by James Norton) had one final clash.

Viewers were gripped on the edge of their seats to watch the showdown after weeks of speculation as they saw Royce, a killer on the run, break into Cawood’s house on her final shift before retirement.  The straight-talking copper came home to find the dangerous criminal sitting in her kitchen, where the two had a spat and exchanged insults while Royce, bleeding and having ingested pills washed down with alcohol.

The evil Royce had planned to kill Cawood and take his biological son Ryan abroad but as he sat looking through her photo albums of Becky and Ryan, he realised all the love and happiness she had provided them with.

After seeing everything Cawood had done for her grandson Ryan in raising him after her daughter Becky, who was raped by Royce, took her own life shortly after his birth, he finally ended it all and freed her of his burden by dosing himself in petrol and striking a match, setting himself on fire.

Catherine put the flames out with one of her sister Clare’s crochet blankets as emergency services arrived, but Royce later died in hospital.

Speaking on The News Agents podcast to hosts Emily Maitlis and Lewis Goodall, Norton revealed what it was like to film those final scenes of the hit series, which launched in 2014. He praised his co-star Sarah Lancashire describing her as ‘genuinely very, very special and brilliant.’

James said the epic ending was kept so top secret only he and Sarah and producers knew what was about to happen, as he recalled: “Everyone knew that this day was very special. No one knew what was going to happen because they only gave the scripts to Sarah and myself and the people, the producers who needed to know, so everyone was really excited to see what happened.”

James continued: “And the crew, the cast, everyone was walking around in whispers. The energy was palpable. It was crackling.

“And Sarah and I, I think we knew the pressure on us, but often you thrive in that kind of environment. I mean, I could say so many platitudes about her. She’s genuinely very, very special and brilliant.”

When Emily addressed the talk about different endings being filmed, he said: “No, that’s complete nonsense. I can put that to bed now. That was the media taking something which was said, completely out of context.”

He added: “I think what happened is Amit Shah, who played Faisal said that… I think they shot his final scene in lots of different ways, different sort of interpretations, which was then misconstrued, and then there was a rumour that we’d shot hundreds of different endings, which would have been a hugely wasteful and impractical way of shooting.

“You’re already desperately trying to play against the clock. And so, the idea of having days to shoot alternative endings is nonsense.”