Happy Valley has once again been enthralling viewers following its return earlier this month for a third and final season. It's been seven years since fans have caught up with Sergeant Catherine Cawood and sister Clare Cartwright.
The gritty drama is not disappointing this time round, with fans tuning in every Sunday to BBC One for their next fix. While Sarah Lancashire has been heavily praised for her performance as Catherine, Siobhan Finneran has also been winning rave reviews for her reprisal of Clare.
The third series has seen Catherine discover the remains of a gangland murder victim in a drained reservoir - which sparked an unfortunate series of events that has led her back to Tommy Lee Royce, the father of her grandson Ryan and her late daughter's rapist.
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After a tip-off from her colleague in the police force, Catherine was shocked to discover it was her sister who was facilitating Ryan's visits to the Category-A prison in Leeds with her partner Neil Ackroyd. This led her to confront her sister in a tense café moment. which has been hailed by fans as some of the best TV they have seen.
Siobhan was born in Oldham, like co-star Sarah, to Irish parents. It appears the actress was always destined to be involved in the performing arts having previously shared how she was a fan of English comedian and a fellow northerner. Eric Morecambe. She recalled to The Telegraph in 2017 that "as a little girl I wanted to be Eric Morecambe. Not to be like him but to actually be him."
After completing a theatre studies course, she landed her debut role aged 20 in the film 1987 film Rita, Sue and Bob Too. But while that was her first official big role, she hasn't forgotten playing the back end of a horse.
Speaking to The Guardian about being reunited with her film co-star George Costigan in Happy Valley, she said: "We stayed friends and it’s lovely to be in scenes with George again. Actually, I have his wife, Julia North, to thank for my entire career.
"Even after the film was released, I still didn’t have an Equity card so I couldn’t work. Jules was working at the Half Moon theatre down in east London and cast me in the chorus for this show called Poppy. It was about the opium wars but done like a pantomime. I ended up half of a horse called Randy. I was the back end of Randy, but it finally got me an Equity card. Bless Jules – and Randy – because God knows what I’d be doing now."
Since starring in Rita, Sue and Bob Too, Siobhan has worked regularly on stage and screen with her TV roles including Clocking Off, Unforgiven, and The Moorside to name but a few and, more recently Alma’s Not Normal, Jimmy McGovern’s Time, Netflix thriller The Stranger and of course Happy Valley.
She has also played lady's maid Sarah O’Brien in Downton Abbey and some may forget that she starred in ITV's hit comedy, Benidorm. She starred as Janice Garvey in the series from 2007 to 2015 before it ended three years later.
But some may also remember Siobhan appearing in Coronation Street, Between August 1989 and March 1990, she appeared as factory employee Josie Phillips, in the long-running ITV soap. The character is best remembered for her on-off employment, and difficult relationship, with her boss, Mike Baldwin. And it wasn't just Corrie as she also played Heather Hutchinson in Emmerdale.
Away from her career, Siobhan was married to former Emmerdale and Heartbeat star Mark Jordon. The pair were said to have met in the late 80s and tied the knot in 1997 before going on to have two children, Poppy and Jordan, together with Siobhan scaling back on her acting work at the time to raise their family.
However, the pair later divorced in 2014 and Mark, who played Daz Spencer in the ITV soap, is now remarried to Emmerdale co-star Laura Norton, with whom he shares two children.
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