Inside the Happy Valley theory saying creepy teacher Frances is returning for the finale

PLEASE NO


Hold your breath and hold back the tears and woe, because Happy Valley is sadly coming to an end on Sunday. Not just the end of season three, but the end of the entire series altogether – and thanks to a seven year gap between seasons two and three it feels like we’ve had this show and these characters in our lives for such a long time, even when we’ve only seen a total of 17 episodes so far! A lot of characters have returned for the final season – Richard Cawood returned to the main cast after being missing for season two, and Alison has returned too after coming out of prison for killing her serial killer son Daryl. But there’s one character who hasn’t returned to Happy Valley for season two – Frances – and this theory suggests there might be. way for her to come back and creep us all out all over again…

Who is Frances?

Frances Drummond was a woman who became infatuated with Tommy Lee Royce and was visiting him in prison throughout season two. She took up a job as ‘Miss Wheland’ at Ryan’s school to get close to him, and to try and convince him to forgive Tommy Lee Royce.

Catherine rumbles her, and goes round to the house to reveal TLR’s true colours and Frances meekly retreats back into obscurity. But has she?

The theory

For the last few weeks, one of Darius’ henchmen Ivan, the skinhead one who’s been threatening Faisal and generally being a menace around West Yorkshire, has been saying he’s getting married on ‘Wednesday’.

The theory going around the Happy Valley fandom is that the person he’s going to get married to is none other than Frances Drummond. It would be a very soap-like twist, but considering Frances’ track record on prison men it’s hardly out of the question. We’ll have to tune in Sunday to see if there’s any truth to it…

Happy Valley season three airs Sundays at 9pm on BBC One, but you can refresh yourself by watching the boxset on iPlayer.

All images courtesy of BBC.

Related stories recommended by this writer:

• There’s a theory the Happy Valley ending has been staring right at us on the poster

• The definitive tier list ranking of every major character in Happy Valley

This Happy Valley theory about who Tommy Lee Royce’s real dad is has changed my life