How to watch Happy Valley season 3: Stream the hit crime drama in the UK and abroad
Seven years after the release of the second season, the BAFTA-winning series returns – here’s how to watch Happy Valley season three
UK crime fans rejoice, the Yorkshire-based investigative series Happy Valley is back for a third and final season. After a seven year gap between seasons two and three, the concluding series once again follows Police Sergeant Catherine Cawood, nearing retirement, as she tackles a series of brutal murders. After clashing at a distance across two seasons, fans have also been promised a final climactic showdown between Cawood and her nemesis, the brutal murderer and rapist Tommy Lee Royce. An assuring sign for the quality of this conclusion, series creator Sally Wainwright has returned to pen the final season.
UK fans can catch the series as it airs weekly on BBC One at 9pm every Sunday, starting from 1 January and finishing up on 5 February. If you miss this initial showing, you can stream each episode on catch-up services BBC iPlayer and Sky Go following their TV airing. You can also find the first two series on these services, if you need a refresher following the show’s long absence.
Happy Valley fans in the US will have to wait a little longer to stream the third season, with the series not slated to land on BBC America until May 2023. If you prefer to stream, season three will release simultaneously on AMC Plus, where the first two seasons are currently available. Keeping things tidy, Amazon subscribers can add AMC Plus as a streaming channel on Prime Video US, for an additional monthly fee, saving themselves from remembering an extra set of login details.
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What is Happy Valley about?
Set in the Calder Valley, West Yorkshire, Happy Valley follows the criminal investigations and personal life of police sergeant Catherine Cawood. Following the suicide of her teenage daughter, Cawood must balance her police career, the care of her grandson Ryan and her continued confrontations with Tommy Lee Royce, the man who raped her daughter and fathered Ryan. Season three sees Cawood nearing retirement and on the trail of a violent gang, while dealing with the revelation that Ryan has secretly been visiting Royce in prison.
Happy Valley is written and created by Sally Wainwright, known chiefly for creating British television dramas Scott & Bailey, Last Tango in Halifax and Gentleman Jack. The series stars Sarah Lancashire (Coronation Street, Last Tango in Halifax) as Sgt Catherine Cawood, alongside Siobhan Finneran (Benidorm), Charlie Murphy (Peaky Blinders), James Norton (Grantchester) and George Costigan (So Haunt Me). Season three sees the addition of new cast members Oliver Huntingdon (The Rising), Jack Bandeira (Sex Education), Alec Secareanu (God’s Own Country) and Anthony Flanagan (Gentleman Jack).
How to watch Happy Valley season 3 in the UK: Sky Go and BBC iPlayer
As noted above, Happy Valley airs Sundays at 9pm on BBC One. If this time doesn’t suit, UK viewers can stream the series on catch-up via BBC iPlayer. Alongside Happy Valley, BBC iPlayers hosts a range of quality programming, including His Dark Materials, Search Party, The Traitors and Our Flag Means Death, as well as hit movies like Legend, Green Book, Goodfellas and The Shawshank Redemption.
However, if you’re a Sky TV customer, it may be as simple for you to stream the series via the Sky Go app, where it’s also available. If you’re interested in signing up, Sky TV deals start from £24/mth, with this most basic plan including Sky TV and Netflix as standard. Higher tier plans include wider ranges of sports and movie channels, access to Paramount Plus and more.
How to watch Happy Valley season 3 in the US: AMC Plus
While it won’t be available on the service until May, there’s plenty of great content on AMC Plus for anyone who signs up in the meantime. Alongside the first two seasons of Happy Valley, viewers can stream shows like Mad Men, The Walking Dead, Gangs of London and Interview with the Vampire. AMC Plus will set you back $8.99/mth, or $83.88/yr on the annual plan, with this 12-month subscription averaging out to roughly $6.99/mth.
If you’re already subscribed to Prime Video US, or are interested in both the services, you can keep things tidy by adding AMC Plus as a channel on your Prime Video subscription. Prime Video costs $8.99/mth, with the addition of the AMC Plus channel costing an additional $8.99/mth. Prime Video US hosts a varied selection of premium content, including shows and movies like The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, The Boys, Reacher, The Northman, The Wolf of Wall Street and more.
How to watch Happy Valley season 3 from anywhere in the world: Use a quality VPN service
If you’re likely to be outside the UK over the coming months, you may find your access to certain streaming platforms and catch-up services limited or blocked due to geographic restrictions. If that’s the case, you may want to look into signing up to a quality VPN service to ensure you’ll be able to keep up with the latest season of Happy Valley.
A VPN, or Virtual Private Network, is a type of privacy software that enables a user to browse the web safely and privately, doing so by encrypting your traffic and by a process known as “location spoofing” whereby a user’s traffic is rerouted through servers in different locations to obfuscate its origin.
For a more in-depth explanation of the ins-and-outs of VPNs, you can read our full-length What is a VPN? guide. For an extensive list of the best options available, you can browse our Best VPN roundup. However, to save you some time, we’ve added mini-reviews of two of our favourite options just below.
Our favourite VPN for streaming, ExpressVPN earned five stars and our Best Buy accolade in our original ExpressVPN review. Amongst the services positives are its top-notch security and privacy, streaming and download speeds and reliable spoofing. In testing, ExpressVPN handled multiple 4K videos from US servers with ease, while granting access to a wide range of US platforms and services. Outside of its tech credentials, the VPN also boasts 24/7 customer support, a 30-day money back guarantee and three free months signup offer for Expert Reviews users who sign up using the link below.
NordVPN also bagged five stars and a Best Buy award in our NordVPN review, as well as the distinction of ‘best all-round VPN’ in our VPN round-up. The service offers ironclad security and privacy, operating an audited no-logs policy, great streaming speeds and access to a wide range of servers, with over 5,500 options available across 60 countries. NordVPN also offers round-the-clock customer service, a month-long money back guarantee and excellent pricing options on its longer-term plans.