Happy Valley Page #5

Season #2 Episode #3

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ANN:

That’s crap.

JOHN:

Yeah. So. Anyway.

ANN:

I’m really sorry John.

HAPPY VALLEY SERIES TWO. EPISODE THREE. PEACH SCRIPT. 21A21A.

JOHN:

Not your fault.

(a moment)

Do you wanna go for a drink? Some

time.

So that’s a bit sudden.

ANN:

Erm

JOHN:

Sorry. Is that inappropriate?

ANN:

Going for a drink?

HAPPY VALLEY SERIES TWO. EPISODE THREE. PEACH SCRIPT. 2222.

JOHN:

Asking.

ANN:

Oh. Is it? I don’t [know]

JOHN:

Sorry.

ANN:

When?

JOHN:

Any time.

ANN:

Okay.

JOHN:

Really?

ANN:

Not tonight.

JOHN:

No.

ANN:

But

JOHN:

Yeah.

ANN:

Maybe

JOHN:

Whenever.

ANN:

Later in the

JOHN:

Yeah.

ANN:

Week.

(awkward pause)

Where y’off? Anywhere exciting?

JOHN:

Post mortem.

HAPPY VALLEY SERIES TWO. EPISODE THREE. PEACH SCRIPT. 2323.

ANN:

What, the - ?

(she’s really excited, but

she realises it’s

delicate, so she mouths

it)

Victim’s? Post-mortem?

JOHN nods. His deep unease in pretty palpable.

CUT TO:

17 INT. MORTUARY. DAY 8. 15.07 17

It’s JOHN we’re chiefly interested in throughout: the effect

it has on someone sitting through the four-hour autopsy of

someone they murdered.

The LAB ASSISTANT uses a gurney to transfer the body from the

fridge to the autopsy table. The bag is opened, revealing the

remains of VICKY’s clothed body, with plastic bags over her

head, hands and feet. VICKY is carefully removed from the

body bag. The plastic bags are carefully removed, one by one,

from the head, hands and feet, making sure nothing falls off

or is lost. We notice the time: it’s 15:07.

JOHN’s in a little room just off from the autopsy room. He

looks on, through a serving hatch. He watches as the bag

comes off VICKY’s head, and he sees her face. Her decomposing

face. He did that. He looks like Catherine’s friend staring

at the peacock:
transfixed, eager to make sure VICKY doesn’t

suddenly burst into life and say, “It was him!” The bags are

passed from the LAB ASSISTANT to JOHN: these are the first

exhibits to be bagged and labelled.

[Present in the lab along with ANDY SHEPHERD is the

PATHOLOGIST, DR CAROL FOWLER, one ASSISTANT and a

PHOTOGRAPHER who takes endless photos of each detail as it’s

revealed].

We notice details as JOHN does: VICKY’s almost perfect new,

bright red high-heels being removed (in great contrast to her

decomposing remains), her right knee which was grazed as she

flailed around when he was strangling her, the limp, cold,

uselessness of her oddly discoloured limbs as her few items

of clothing are removed.

JOHN bags the shoes and clothes up, writes notes on a lap top

(colour, size, make, any wear and tear), and keeps his head

down.

DR CAROL FOWLER does an external visual examination of

VICKY’s body. She takes a swab from the mouth, puts it in a

tube. Other swabs are taken. Finger nail clippings are taken.

We hear the CAROL mumble to ANDY

HAPPY VALLEY SERIES TWO. EPISODE THREE. PEACH SCRIPT. 2424.

CAROL:

Asphyxiation.

(she presses her fingers

into the front of her

neck)

Hyoid bone’s broken. I’ll show you

when we open her up.

JOHN can’t hear what CAROL is saying. He can only guess.

Suddenly we see a flashback to when JOHN was strangling VICKY

in her flat. The fight she put up. Banging and scraping her

knee against something in the fight, clutching at the cable

with her fingers, her nails digging into her own neck in the

attempt to stop this freaky thing happening to her.

ASSISTANT:

John? John.

JOHN realises the LAB ASSISTANT is offering him another

exhibit through the hatch to bag up. Maybe the broken shoe.

Back in the lab, CAROL has got onto VICKY’s other injuries.

With the help of his ASSISTANT, VICKY’s been rolled onto her

side, and they’re looking at her back and bottom. Photographs

are taken. Again, CAROL just mumbles to ANDY (we don’t need

to see this)

CAROL:

So we’re looking at vaginal

bruising and...

(looking closer:
the real

damage is internal)

lacerations.

JOHN has another flashback to that fateful night: smashing a

beer bottle in VICKY’s sink to turn it into a weapon. Knowing

he has to do this terrible thing to her body if he’s going to

make it look like the work of the serial killer. JOHN comes

into the sitting room where VICKY is dead on the floor. He

has the broken bottle in his hand. How’s he going to do this?

ASSISTANT:

Are you all right?

JOHN realises he’s being spoken to again.

JOHN:

Yeah! Yeah. It’s just it’s a while

since I’ve done one of these.

CAROL picks up her scalpel for the Y-incision: it’s time for

the autopsy.

CUT TO:

HAPPY VALLEY SERIES TWO. EPISODE THREE. PEACH SCRIPT. 2525.

18 EXT. ANGELIKI RESTAURANT. NIGHT 8. 20.45 18

Busy Hebden at night. An establishing shot of the restaurant,

with a board outside that reads ‘Jackson Live here tonight at

9pm’.

CUT TO:

19 INT. ANGELIKI RESTAURANT. NIGHT 8. 20.46 19

CATHERINE and JOYCE are knocking back the ole vino. They’re

on a second bottle, so CATHERINE’s more fluent than ever.

She’s just generously refilling JOYCE’s glass, then her own.

Beside them there’s a little stage set with big amps and a

mic. The restaurant’s quiet (only one or two other couples

here) so they talk hush hush

JOYCE:

So how many times d’you have to go?

CATHERINE:

Six. Including today. He assesses

me. And then he makes

recommendations.

JOYCE:

Who to? What sort o’

recommendations?

CATHERINE:

Maybe they’re going to have me put

down.

(JOYCE is amused.

CATHERINE can’t decide

whether to be amused or

not)

Have you ever been? Have you ever

done owt like that?

(JOYCE shakes her head)

He leaves gaps. We sit there in

silence. I think he relies on the

idea that nature abhors a vacuum,

so if we sit there long enough I’ll

feel obliged to fill it with

(she hand mimes yacking

and mouths - )

Shite. So I do.

JOYCE:

Is it though? Shite?

CATHERINE:

Some of it.

We jump back to

CUT TO:

HAPPY VALLEY SERIES TWO. EPISODE THREE. PEACH SCRIPT. 2626.

20 INT. THERAPIST’S ROOM. DAY 8. 09.32 20

CATHERINE:

Look. If I’d really wanted to kill

him, I could’ve done. I had him on

the floor, he was helpless, and I

coulda kicked the stuffing out of

him. But I didn’t. What I actually

did was douse him in foam so he

couldn’t set fire to himself.

THERAPIST:

Do you regret that?

CATHERINE:

No.

Then back in the restaurant

CUT TO:

21 INT. ANGELIKI RETAURANT. NIGHT 8. 20.47 21

CATHERINE:

Course I regret it! The only reason

I didn’t kick the sh*t out of him

at the time is because he wanted me

to.

(daft girly voice)

“Kill me, kill me”,

(then her own heroic

voice)

“Piss off you little turd, I’m not

doing owt you want”. I neglected to

mention that after I’d doused him

in foam I did then indeed endeavour

to kick the living day lights out

of him. But sadly that - whoever

she was - police woman went and

waded in and pulled me off him.

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