Sarah Lancashire and the Role of a Lifetime

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Sarah Lancashire has always managed to vow audiences with her character portrayals, but her portrayal of Catherine Cawood definitely ranks as one of the best pieces of casting in British cinematic history and is probably the role which will define her life’s work.

The announcement that a third season of Happy Valley will follow the first two installments of the hugely popular BBC TV drama generated such internet traffic from fans of the show that companies such as this digital marketing agency Miami achieve on their most productive days.

The Oldham born actress was very happy that a third season of the show was going to be made and how couldn’t she be when Happy Valley achieved such phenomenal success for its first two seasons.

Serial Award Winner

The show managed to win the Best Drama Series award at the BAFTA TV awards in both 2015 and 2017. Furthermore, Sarah Lancashire was nominated for the Best Leading Actress in 2015 and she managed to win the same award in 2017 for her excellent portrayal of the recovering sergeant biting more than anyone else could chew.

In addition to BAFTA, Sarah also managed to sweep the awards at the British Screenwriters’ Awards, the Broadcasting Press Guild Awards, the Biarritz International Festival of Audiovisual Programming, and the Banff Television Festival. And that’s only the awards starting with a ‘B’.

Not Sure If She Was Right for the Role

The interesting part about Sarah Lancashire and how she envisioned her portrayal of Catherine Cawood is the fact that she thought she wasn’t a good fit for the role. She felt that her accent wasn’t right and sounded too broad and that she would end up as just another woman in a uniform.

However, Sarah managed to do completely the opposite and created one of the most memorable characters in British TV history.

Catherine is both motherly and caring, and at the same time disturbed and broken to the point of no repair. She could predict Tommy Lee Royce’s even most cunning moves on her good days, but wouldn’t be able to get out of her room on her bad days.

That duality which Sarah managed to achieve with her portrayal of Catherine is not something that any actress can do and fellow actors such as Siobhan Finneran and James Norton are constantly full of praise for the award winning actress and how she tackled her most challenging role to date.

Where Will She Take Catherine Next?

This is the question on everyone’s minds with season 3 ready to hit the screens. Of course, it is not only down to Sarah to decide which direction her character will go as Happy Valley creator Sally Wainwright will likely have the final word as to which direction the show will go in, but knowing how capable Sarah Lancashire is and the opportunities and prospects which a third season of Happy Valley could bring for her development of the Catherine Cawood character truly is a mouth-watering prospect for fans.