Sgt Catherine’s the patron saint of middle-aged women ignored by the world. She deserves a Happy Valley happy

SPIN JAN’S CATHERINE WHEEL OF MISFORTUNE AND GUESS THIS SERIES’ FINAL TWIST

EVERYONE is praying for a Happy valley happy ending for Sergeant Catherine Cawood on Sunday night. yorkshire’s finest is due to hang up her police hat and retire within days, but not before she’s tied up a few loose ends.

First she has to sort out the gangster Kneževićs family aka the Halifax Mafia, solve the murder of teacher’s wife Joanna Hepworth and get psychopath Tommy Lee royce back behind bars where he belongs.

Her dream is then to drive her restored Land rover to the Himalayas, to hike there in the fresh air of the foothills, far from the ‘tw*ts’ and ‘sh*tpots’ who soil her working life — criminals and colleagues alike. But will she make it out alive? not if Tommy has his way.

The triple killer and rapist wants a gun and he wants to complete his ‘unfinished business’ with the policewoman he loves to hate.

At 9pm tomorrow, Happy valley will boil down to its primeval essence, a straightforward battle between good versus evil as Catherine and Tommy fight to the bitter end. The question is, who will triumph in the last ever episode of this popular drama? It just doesn’t bear thinking about.

I’m in such a state of dread at what might befall our heroine that I can’t even bring myself to watch the new BBC trailer.

Meanwhile, social media sites and chatrooms blaze with speculation and hypotheses about what is going to happen to whom and why. on Twitter, even Tv presenter Dan Walker wants to share his Happy valley thoughts and has posted ‘my climax theory’. not now, Dan!

We’re all too busy wondering if Catherine will turn up for her leaving party and what the cops will buy her with their whipround collection — hopefully a new scarf.

AFTER six long years, Happy valley returned to BBC1 for a third and final series on new year’s Day. This farewell outing over the moors and dales has gripped millions over the past five weeks, with even latecomers who missed the first two series now frantically binge-watching all episodes to be part of the unmissable last hurrah for one of British television’s greatest dramas.

I mean it. Happy valley is damn near, just about perfect. The cast, the characters, the dialogue and the plot are all superb, while the various themes — the abusive husband, the family tragedy, the organised crime, the casual sexism — are all stitched together in a credible and satisfying way.

In addition it is all so solidly rooted in time and place, as yorkshire as a slab of ginger parkin, but never slipping into syrupy parody. And while any series that has dazzling supporting turns from James norton as Tommy Lee royce and Siobhan Finneran as Catherine’s sister Clare has to be special, there is no doubt who is the real star of the show.

In Sergeant Catherine Cawood, writer Sally Wainwright and actress Sarah Lancashire have created a vibrant and unforgettable character, with every bevelled detail of her persona impeccably observed, from her plainspeaking ways and her moral code to her hideous knitted scarf.

Women in particular love Catherine. We loved her from the very first scene in the very first series back in 2014, when Sgt Cawood introduced herself, fire extinguisher in hand, to a petrolsoaked junkie threatening to set himself alight.

‘I’m Catherine, by the way,’ she said. ‘ I’m 47. I’m divorced. I live with my sister, who’s a recovering heroin addict. I’ve two grown-up children — one dead, one who don’t speak to me — and a grandson.’

She was wearing a pair of cheap sunglasses she had just purchased in a corner shop.

Why? ‘ He can send himself to paradise — that’s his choice — but he’s not taking my eyebrows with him,’ she told a colleague at the time. That was all it took to burn Catherine into our hearts and minds, but there was more to her than that, so much more.

The central tragedy of Sgt Cawood’s life is that her daughter Becky killed herself, after being raped by Tommy Lee royce and giving birth to their son, ryan (played as a child and now as a teen by the same affecting actor, rhys Connah). Granny Catherine brought up ryan and her decision to do this cost her a husband and a son because neither of these weak men could cope with ryan being in the family home.

Catherine just got on with it and all parties are reconciled now, but sometimes her expression reveals everything; the weight of womanhood, the worry of motherhood, a grandmother’s anxiety for the difficulties ahead for this misbegotten boy and — underpinning it all — the instincts of a policewoman who hopes for the best but prepares for the worst.

She knows Tommy Lee royce is incapable of rehabilitation or regret, that he is unworthy of respect or second chances, but no one will listen to her.

For Catherine is the epitome of the overlooked, middle- aged woman. Superiors and inferiors often disregard her opinions, even though she talks solid common sense. Perhaps that is because she looks so chaotic; outspoken and overweight, her hair is a mess and her mascara cobwebbing down her face, darkening the shadows under her eyes. yet appearances are deceptive, for Catherine is tough and smart, experienced and wise to the ways of the world, a woman who has been around the block too many times to count, most of them in a high-viz vest and a bad temper. ‘you’re getting too bloody old for this, Catherine, love,’ she says to herself, sprinting after a drug pusher.

SHE doesn’t suffer fools gladly because she doesn’t suffer fools at all and her scorn for humbug is heightened by having had to listen to so bloody much of it for years.

yet everyone else thinks they know better than her. ‘Why does nobody listen to me?’ she wailed recently. Why indeed?

The first episode of series three plunged us straight back onto the mean streets of Sowerby Bridge, while more people watched the second episode than viewed Tom Bradby’s ITV interview with Prince Harry to promote his new book. no wonder.

His privilege- soaked grumbles about the lack of sausages in royal life were no match for an unbearably tense low- speed car chase that took in HMP Sheffield and a coffee shop.

only Happy valley could wring so much top quality, hold-your-breath drama from two menopausal women in anoraks chatting at a table or someone chopping up a beetroot on a wooden board.

Pressure has ratcheted up with every scene and the series’ grip on the nation has tightened as we inch towards tomorrow’s denouement. But what is the secret of Happy valley’s award-winning success and the light it shines where other cop shows fail?

Perhaps because it is equal parts police procedural and family drama. Perhaps because matriarch Catherine’s struggle to do her best for her blended, mixedup family resonates with so many.

Perhaps it’s because James norton is such a handsome psychopath. even Joanna Lumley is a fan. ‘Tommy Lee royce, he makes my valley happy,’ she joked on a recent radio show.

Sally Wainwright is a genius and Happy valley has its own seam of black humour, but it would be foolish to expect many laughs now, not if Tommy has his way.

He was last seen shivering under a dirty candlewick in a grotty hiding place, pouring poisonous daydreams of escape and redemption into the ears of his impressionable son, ryan. Tommy talks rot. He talks of bungee jumping, of Marbella and living a new life together — but what is his real plan? To kill ryan to get back at Catherine? To kill them both?

oh God! We will find out soon enough.