Happy Valley Page #5

Season #2 Episode #1

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CATHERINE:

No way.

MIKE:

Somebody from H-MIT’ll want to go

through your first account with you

in a bit more detail at some point

today, so you should make it clear

to them then that you knew her.

CATHERINE:

Yeah. Yeah.

(MIKE heads off. We linger

on CATHERINE. Something’s

troubling her)

How long’s she been dead, do they

know?

MIKE:

Last sighted five or six weeks

since. Time of death at the moment

they can’t be any more specific

than between three and five weeks

ago. They’re getting a search team

round to her house now, see what

that throws up.

CATHERINE nods, takes it in. MIKE heads back off up the

stairs, but we linger on CATHERINE. She’s worried. Very

worried. Disturbed even.

CUT TO:

30 EXT. NISA. DAY 2. 09.05 30

Sunlight. Hebden Bridge.

46-year-old NEIL ACKROYD stacks empty plastic grocery crates

by the delivery door to the little supermarket. Further along

the street at the shop entrance, we discover CLARE just

leaving. Trying to sound reasonable (despite being

irritated), CLARE calls back into the shop at a bloke (the

MANAGER) behind the counter

CLARE:

You know, a phone call? It’s just

manners is all I’m saying.

(the MANAGER mutters

something charmless at

her)

Yeah, and you.

She heads down the street just as NEIL ACKROYD heads back

towards the shop entrance. They glance at one another in

passing (CLARE still looking pretty irritated) when there’s a

flicker of recognition between them.

HAPPY VALLEY SERIES TWO. EPISODE ONE. GREEN SCRIPT. 22.

NEIL:

Clare?

(CLARE feels like she

knows this bloke, but

she’s not sure how)

Neil. Ackroyd. We were at Sowerby

Bridge toge[ther]

She looks none the wiser for a second, then the penny drops,

and fond memories come flooding back to her.

CLARE:

Neil! How’re you?

NEIL:

How’re you?

He’s smiling. In fact his whole face has lit up. He has a

calm, cheerful manner (but perhaps we can detect something a

bit sad/damaged/care worn about him too).

CLARE:

I’m not so bad. Well except I asked

after a job in here two weeks since

and he’s never got back to me and

it turns out he’s taken someone

else on now, so

NEIL:

Oh, he’s

(confidentially)

hopeless, he doesn’t know which

way’s up, he couldn’t organise the

proverbial piss-up. I’d look

elsewhere.

CLARE:

Well, I’s have to. God, d’you

know...

(gazing at him)

I’da walked passed you and not

known you. How y’keeping?

NEIL:

(a bit self conscious)

Oh, y’know.

CLARE:

Do y’live round here?

NEIL:

Yeah! I’ve a little flat on Rawson

Lane. I’ve not been there long, a

few months.

CLARE:

‘Cos didn’t you live up Queensbury?

HAPPY VALLEY SERIES TWO. EPISODE ONE. GREEN SCRIPT. 23.

NEIL:

I got divorced.

CLARE:

Oh I’m sorry.

NEIL:

(he looks sorry too)

Yeah. Still. How about you? Are you

married?

CLARE:

No! No. I’ve had a few

entanglements, but no, I’m living

with me sister. Catherine, d’you

remember our Catherine?

NEIL:

I remember your Catherine.

CLARE:

Two years above us.

NEIL:

I was always terrified of her.

CLARE:

(confidentially)

Yeah, I know what y’mean!

They giggle. They look at one another. We sense they once

fancied each other, or even had a fling, three hundred years

ago in the fourth form.

CLARE (CONT’D)

I thought you worked for t’building

society.

NEIL:

I did! For years. And then...

(he’s embarrassed, not

sure whether to say it or

not)

I had a bit of a difficult patch.

All - all to do with the divorce.

One way and another.

CLARE:

Blimey.

NEIL:

Yeah. Yeah. Still.

That’s a bit of a conversation stopper.

CLARE:

Well I’m sorry to hear that.

HAPPY VALLEY SERIES TWO. EPISODE ONE. GREEN SCRIPT. 24.

NEIL:

It’s smashing to bump into you,

I’ve often thought about you.

CLARE:

Have you?

NEIL:

Yeah! Yeah. Occasionally wondered

what you were up to.

CLARE’s realising how much she used to like NEIL. There’s

something very calm and genuine about him, despite the

sadness. They clearly bring out something very sweet in each

other.

CLARE:

We’re on Hangingroyd Street. Me and

Catherine. Number 29. If ever

you’re at a loose end and y’fancied

a cup o’ tea.

NEIL:

I’m working while four. I could pop

my head in then.

CLARE:

Today?

He realises that may have seemed too eager.

NEIL:

Oh. Obviously not if you’re busy.

CLARE:

No! No, that’d be lovely.

They’re still smiling, so delighted to have bumped into one

another.

CUT TO:

31 EXT. GRAVESEND PRISON. DAY 2. 11.00 31

Establishing shot.

It’s scary, it’s chilling. This is a serious prison.

CUT TO:

32 OMITTED 32

HAPPY VALLEY SERIES TWO. EPISODE ONE. GREEN SCRIPT. 25.

33 INT. GRAVESEND PRISON. TOMMY’S CELL. DAY 2. 11.02. 33

...we discover TOMMY sitting on his bed gazing

dispassionately, vacantly at the tv. Jeremy Kyle. Tommy hears

someone unlocking his door. Which he wasn’t expecting. The

CHAPLAIN appears, and with him the CUSTODIAL OFFICER and his

PERSONAL OFFICER.

CHAPLAIN:

Hello. Tommy.

(TOMMY makes to stand up)

Don’t stand up.

(the CHAPLAIN closes the

door behind him. So it’s

just him and TOMMY in the

room. But we - and he -

knows the other two

OFFICERS are out there)

What you watching?

TOMMY:

Just... crap.

CHAPLAIN:

Is it all right if I...? Sit down.

TOMMY:

What’s up?

The CHAPLAIN sits. There’s raucous laughter/noise from the

telly.

CHAPLAIN:

Could I turn the sound down?

TOMMY simply flips the tv off.

TOMMY:

You’re looking troubled.

CHAPLAIN:

Okay. So. Yesterday afternoon. The

body of a woman was found in a

refuse area next to some flats in

North Halifax. She’d been

strangled. And she’d been sexually

assaulted.

TOMMY:

What’s it got to do with me?

CHAPLAIN:

A DNA swab taken at the post mortem

has indicated that the dead

woman... is your mum.

(we look into TOMMY’s

eyes.

(MORE)

HAPPY VALLEY SERIES TWO. EPISODE ONE. GREEN SCRIPT. 26.

CHAPLAIN (CONT'D)

He’s shocked, but he

gives almost nothing

away)

So some detectives are g[oing] -

TOMMY:

You’re lying.

CHAPLAIN:

I’m sorry. I wish I was.

(TOMMY takes it on)

Some detectives. Are going to come

and talk to you. Later in the day.

And in the meant[ime]

TOMMY:

Why?

CHAPLAIN:

To ask you some questions. About

her. I assume. Her lifestyle,

people she spent her time with,

anybody she owed money to, anybody

she didn’t get on with, anything

that might indicate who would do

something like that to her.

Anything you can tell them that

might help. In the meantime. If you

need to talk to someone. That’s

what I’m here for, and you know

where I am.

(silence)

Are you all right?

TOMMY doesn’t trust himself to speak in case he betrays any

emotion.

CUT TO:

34 EXT. FLATS, LOCAL HOUSING ESTATE. DAY 2. 11.05 34

A mobile police unit’s been set up. A couple of marked police

cars and a shiny black H-MIT Vauxhall are parked up. The bin

shed remains secured as a crime scene with a UNIFORM guarding

it. We see SHAF and the DC he’s been paired up with.

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