Sally Wainwright’s BBC1 hit police thriller Happy Valley is to return for a third and final season after six years off air, with AMC boarding as co-producer for AMC+ and Gentleman Jack indie Lookout Point taking over production from Red Production Company.
Filming will begin early next year in West Yorkshire on the Bafta-winning six-part drama, which stars Sarah Lancashire as the iconic Sergeant Catherine Cawood alongside McMafia’s James Norton and Siobhan Finneran, with the show set to air later in 2022.
Lancashire will reprise her role as Cawood, who discovers the remains of a gangland murder victim in a drained reservoir that sparks off a terrible chain of events. Meanwhile, her grandson Ryan is still living with her but has ideas of his own about what kind of relationship he wants to have with the man Catherine refuses to acknowledge as his father.
Wainwright’s now-preferred production vehicle Lookout Point has taken over production from Red Production Company, which made seasons one and two in 2014 and 2016.
Elsewhere, AMC Networks has boarded season three and the show will air exclusively on AMC+ in the US and Canada, where seasons one and two are currently available. In the past, Netflix has taken North American rights to Happy Valley.
Kristin Jones, AMC Networks’ EVP International Programming, branded Wainwright’s “riveting police series” the “perfect addition to AMC+’s ever-widening library of acclaimed and international dramas.”
BBC drama director Piers Wenger added that Happy Valley‘s 2014 launch “changed the landscape of drama completely.”
“Sally has crafted a magnificent conclusion that is sure to make this third and final series one of television’s most highly anticipated and unmissable moments,” he added.
Wainwright will exec produce alongside Lancashire, Lookout CEO Faith Penhale, Lookout exec Will Johnston and BBC commissioner Ben Irving. BBC Studios, which owns Lookout Point, is distributing internationally.
