'Happy Valley' season 3 has started filming as Sarah Lancashire spotted on set

Happy Valley season 3
(Image credit: BBC)

Happy Valley season 3 is coming to our screens soon, and filming is underway in West Yorkshire as Sarah Lancashire returns to the role of Sergeant Catherine Cawood.

It has been confirmed this will be the final season, returning after a long six year break. Explaining the reason for this break, series creator Sally Wainwright said after season 2: “What I’d hate to do is do a third series and people say it wasn’t as good. So I want time to go away and really come up with stories that I think are going to make a third series.”

So fans will be delighted that filming has commenced, and Mirror Celeb has shared a first-look at Sarah Lancashire, writing a tweet that says: "First look at Sarah Lancashire filming Happy Valley as series returns after six years."

The new behind the scenes photos sees Sarah in her now iconic police uniform, as well as police vans parked down side streets.

The first two seasons of Happy Valley each won the BAFTA awards for both Drama Series and Writing and Sarah Lancashire won Leading Actress for season 2, so it's no surprise that fans have been desperate for filming to start on the newest season.

So far, we know that season 3 will see Sergeant Catherine Cawood facing off against her old adversary Tommy Lee Royce (James Norton).

The full synopsis is: "When Catherine discovers the remains of a gangland murder victim in a drained reservoir it sparks a chain of events that unwittingly leads her straight back to Tommy Lee Royce.

"Her grandson Ryan is now sixteen and still living with Catherine, but he has ideas of his own about what kind of relationship he wants to have with the man Catherine refuses to acknowledge as his father."

Happy Valley seasons 1 and 2 are available on BBC iPlayer. The third season is expected to air on BBC1 later this year.

Lucy Buglass
Senior Staff Writer

Lucy joined the WhatToWatch.com team in 2021, where she writes series guides for must-watch programmes, reviews and the latest TV news. Now she works for our sister site TechRadar in the same role. Originally from Northumberland, she graduated from Oxford Brookes University with a degree in Film Studies and moved to London to begin a career writing about entertainment.

She is a Rotten Tomatoes approved film critic and has a huge passion for cinema. She especially loves horror, thriller and anything crime-related. Her favourite TV programmes include Inside No 9, American Horror Story, Stranger Things and Black Mirror but she is also partial to a quiz show or a bit of Say Yes to the Dress