Happy Valley actor James Norton has revealed a detail nobody would have noticed about THAT intense kitchen scene between Tommy Lee Royce and Sergeant Catherine Cawoord. With bated breath, fans of the hit series tuned in to the final of the BBC One drama for the last time.
Viewers were first introduced to Catherine, played by Sarah Lancashire, and her recent complicated history back in 2014. And over three series fans have fallen in love with the character and her vendetta against Tommy Lee Royce, the father of her grandson and her late daughter's rapist.
The third and final series, which started on New Year's Day, saw Tommy still in prison but no one could have predicted what was to come as he found himself in court for a historic murder. But by beating up his custody officers, and a distraction being created outside, Tommy managed to make his freedom dash.
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Warning: Spoilers ahead...
And now, as they say, the rest is history and after a seven-year wait between series two and series three, viewers finally got to see one last stand-off between Catherine and Tommy following his dramatic escape. In nail-biting scenes, viewers watched Tommy close to being bumped off by mob boss Darius Knezevic as his henchman arrived to silence him for good.
But it didn't take a nervous Tommy long to figure out something wasn't quite right and, armed with a kitchen knife, he got into the car with the three men. And it wasn't long before a bloody battle soon ensued with Tommy the only survivor.
Despite being in a pretty bad way himself, Tommy, played by James Norton, managed to get himself to Catherine's house where he broke in just as Catherine, portrayed by Sarah Lancashire, left to collect Ryan from the police station after he gave a statement on his contact with his dad.
However, the pair did end up having an emotional showdown after Catherine was alerted to a smashed window at her home. Tommy was found by Catherine sitting at her kitchen table having just taken a load of pills. He told his son's grandmother that he could finally see what she had done for his son Ryan, in raising him following the suicide of her daughter Becky, who he still claimed to have loved, as opposed to his delinquent childhood.
Despite his unsuspecting emotion, his buttons were still pressed by an unforgiving Catherine, leading Tommy to douse himself in petrol, giving Catherine a choice to Taser him and end it all. However, it was Tommy who decided to take his own life when he set himself alight, only for Catherine to rush in to save him.
And in his first interview following the epic seventy-minute finale, which did end with news of Tommy's death, actor James has shared how THAT dramatic kitchen scene was filmed. "It was shot quite late on in the shoot. Everyone [in production] knows it is this massive scene in the schedule, but it wasn’t even said," he told TV critic Scott Bryan for GQ. "I’ve got the call sheet somewhere. It’s like 'Catherine and Tommy chat in kitchen' or something like that. But everyone knew it was a big thing."
And James revealed how the "amazing" art department built a replica of the exact room in a studio. He added: "There were stunts. There were fire engines. They built the whole kitchen. You think it was the kitchen we shot in Hebden Bridge. That scene wasn’t actually shot in that house. What they did was they built a whole kitchen in a studio, because I think it would be hard pushed to go and ask the owner of the house 'do you mind if we just exploded a human being in your kitchen?'"
Following the finale, which James told GQ he planned to watch like the millions of others who tuned in to see the last episode, the 37-year-old kept it simple by posting a sign-off on Instagram. Taking to Instagram after the end of the rollercoaster 70-minute spectacle, James simply shared a picture of himself with Sarah before filming their bloody end. "#happyvalley," he simply captioned the post and he didn't need to say much as Happy Valley fans - including famous ones - flocked to respond.
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