Happy Valley Page #2

Season #2 Episode #1

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12

INT. NORLAND ROAD POLICE STATION. CATHERINE’S OFFICE, 12

DAY 1. 15.30

CATHERINE’s busy at her desk when JOYCE is heard approaching -

JOYCE:

Catherine!

CATHERINE:

Joyce!

JOYCE pops her head in.

JOYCE:

I think we may have entered the

Twilight Zone.

CUT TO:

13

EXT. LOCAL HOUSING ESTATE. DAY 1. 16.00 13

CATHERINE and SHAF are looking around an open grassy knoll

(perhaps near the children’s play ground) and there are three

dead mongrels visible from where they’re standing (like

CATHERINE and SHAF are in the middle of a vast irregular

triangle, each point of which is made up of a single dead

dog). A council truck is just pulling up (the sort that

removes dead vermin from the side of the road). A good few onlookers:

this is a creepy sight. SHAF looks kinda freaked,

like he has indeed just entered the twilight zone...

SHAF:

This is like some...

(a fazed-out mumble)

crazy weird sh*t, man.

He’s been reading too much Stephen King as well. And whilst

this does seem weird, CATHERINE is of the experienced opinion

that there’ll be a perfectly banal explanation. She’s on her

radio.

CATHERINE:

There’s no external injuries.

(then to SHAF - )

Happen they’ve been poisoned.

SHAF:
even freakier.

HAPPY VALLEY SERIES TWO. EPISODE ONE. GREEN SCRIPT. 7.

CATHERINE (CONT’D)

(vo)

So okay so I didn’t mean comical.

Exactly. I meant more -

CUT TO:

14 INT/EXT. CATHERINE’S HOUSE, CONSERVATORY. DAY 1. 17.40 14

As before, CATHERINE and CLARE.

CATHERINE:

ironic. Way it turned out. Nicky

Baxter - the vet from Bolton Brow -

he’s managed to get over there

sooner than he’d anticipated. So.

He’s given the sheep a fatal

injection. I thought I’d finished

the poor little sod off, but - God

knows - I mustn’t have. So. The

sheep’s got pentobarbital seeping

silently through its veins...

(it’s around this point

that she happens to take

her sun glasses off,

revealing a bruised cheek

and two stitches)

and guess what. The dogs - whether

they’re the same ones who’d mauled

it in the first place, or a whole

new pack - they decide to have

another go at it. And there’s

enough chemicals inside the sheep

by this point in the pantomime to

knock out half of Huddersfield,

never mind a handful of feral

mongrels over in Ovenden.

CLARE’s shaking her head: mad, sad, hilarious, tragic.

CLARE:

Oh my God.

CATHERINE:

Anyway, I’ve had a tip off by then

about a couple of these lads who’d

nicked the sheep in the first

place, so

CUT TO:

15 EXT. FLATS. DAY 1. 16.30 15

LADS 1 and 2 are cuffed, and being led towards a police van

by CATHERINE and SHAF. GORKEM is also there.

HAPPY VALLEY SERIES TWO. EPISODE ONE. GREEN SCRIPT. 8.

The lads are snarling, aggressive, emotional (even though

what they’re actually saying is comical). CATHERINE’s got a

brand new gash on her cheek, and judging by her temper, it’s

LAD 2 who’s done it.

LAD 2

Have yer no humanity?!

CATHERINE:

Are you talking to me?

LAD 1

We just wanted a bit o’ Sunday

dinner!

CATHERINE:

It’s Wednesday.

LAD 2

For his mam! She’s starting her

chemo on Monday! B*tch.

CATHERINE:

Listen, sh*t-for-brains.

(she gets him up against

the van just before she

loads him in, as a third

OFFICER gets the doors

open)

It was me that had to put that

sheep out of its misery ‘cos o’

you, so don’t talk to me about no

humanity.

She man handles him into the back of the van.

CATHERINE (CONT’D)

(v.o.)

I coulda let ‘em off with a stern

word and a Community Resolution -

thus helping Mr.Cameron and Mrs.May

massage their crime figures - but

they’d scored very poorly in the

attitude test, and that...

It’s at this point that CATHERINE smells something ugly.

CUT TO:

16 INT/EXT. CATHERINE’S HOUSE, CONSERVATORY. DAY 1. 17.42 16

CATHERINE and CLARE as before.

HAPPY VALLEY SERIES TWO. EPISODE ONE. GREEN SCRIPT. 9.

CATHERINE:

...was when I smell this s[mell] -

I was going to say ‘smell’, but the

word doesn’t begin to do it

justice.

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17 EXT. FLATS. DAY 1. 16.31 17

They’ve locked the van doors (the lads bang and shout abuse

aimed at CATHERINE from inside the van, SHAF and GORKEM are

there), and now CATHERINE’s heading for the bin shed,

following her experience, her nose, her instincts.

CATHERINE:

(v.o.)

It coulda been anything, fish,

poultry, you name it, but whatever

it was, it was well off.

CUT TO:

18 INT. HOUSING ESTATE, BIN SHED. DAY 1. 16.32 18

CATHERINE pulls the door open. The smell hits her. She pulls

a pair of latex CSI gloves on and comes in. Garbage

everywhere:
over flowing bins, split black bags. She comes

further in and looks around. Then she sees something that

compels her to stare. We don’t see it (or maybe we just see a

human hand poking out from the rubbish or something) but we

know from her reaction that it’s something horrific.

Titles

CUT TO:

19 EXT. BARKISLAND. DAY 1. 18.35 19

Early evening.

An estate of smart new family homes. We’re particularly

interested in one house which has a couple of smart, newish

cars outside (a mid-range BMW and VW Zafira), and a

collection of kids’ bikes. This is JOHN WADSWORTH’s house.

CUT TO:

20 INT. JOHN’S HOUSE. KITCHEN. DAY 1. 18.36 20

The WADSWORTH family are all in from school and work: a

noisy, busy household. Mum (AMANDA, 46) is cooking, Dad

(JOHN, 48) has set the table and now he’s sitting at the far

end of the kitchen playing Scrabble on his Ipad.

HAPPY VALLEY SERIES TWO. EPISODE ONE. GREEN SCRIPT. 10.

JACK (15) and BEN (13) are having a heated debate, and AMBER

(8) is struggling to get the screw-top off a juice carton.

(The debate shouldn’t sound as angry as it might read, it’s

just the hurly-burly of teenagers and tired parents)...

AMANDA:

Don’t start playing on that Play

Station again, Ben! Your tea’s

nearly ready!

BEN:

It’s my turn! It’s not again.

JACK:

(helping himself to

something from the

fridge, taking the piss)

Aw! Is he crying?

BEN:

Piss off.

AMANDA:

John, can you tell him not to turn

it back on again? And don’t swear.

AMBER:

This won’t open!

JOHN:

You’ve heard what your mother’s

said.

AMANDA:

(at JACK as she takes the

carton off AMBER to open

it)

You’re not raiding the fridge, you,

five minutes before your tea.

Just then JOHN’s phone beeps with a text. He gets his phone

out of his pocket, but realises it’s not that phone. It’s his

other phone. A phone his wife doesn’t know he has. He quickly

gets it out of his jacket pocket (which he’d left draped

somewhere) and grabs it as unobtrusively as he can.

BEN:

If he’d come off when he was

supposed to I’d’ve had my turn by

now and I wouldn’t have to swear!

The family debate continues around JOHN as he reads the text

from someone called VF:

I am outside your house. Come and meet me OR I WILL KNOCK ON

YOUR DOOR.

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