Happy Valley star James Norton responds to 'genius' impressions of the cast

It’s coming up to a week since the final episode of Sally Wainwright’s acclaimed police procedural Happy Valley – starring Sarah Lancashire as no-nonsense copper Catherine Cawood and James Norton as her criminal adversary Tommy Lee Royce - was broadcast on BBC One.

Yet, the buzz around the show certainly hasn’t died down in recent days, as content creator Kieran Hodgson went viral on Thursday with his impressions of the beloved characters.

His take on Clare sees him look down and avoid any form of eye contact, his Neil is perfectly raspy, and his version of Catherine and Tommy’s fiery final conversation involves the pair arguing over who is the real “k***head”.

Referencing Cawood’s pedantic and constant correction of grandson Ryan’s “of” instead of “have”, Hodgson concluded the video with a colleague congratulating the sergeant on a “great last day of your career”.

“For crying out loud. A great last day have my career,” replies Hodgson’s Cawood, who holds a mug of tea in her hand and sports a fluorescent raincoat.

Faultless.

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And it even caught the attention of Norton, who shared the video and said: “This is genius.”

Other social media users agreed with him, describing the skit as “brilliant”:

Elsewhere, Rhys Connah – who played Ryan across all three series – revealed this week that he had “no clue” how the final moments of the show would play out, with producers keeping the epic conclusion from him.

He told Loose Women on Monday: “When I was first given the script, the very first draft of episode six, I read some of it, I got about the car crash and everything... but we get to the end and it's all redacted, redacted, redacted."

The actor went on to insist that he “liked” the final episode, which aired on Sunday.

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