James Norton thinks the 'Happy Valley' finale was "sort of perfect".
James Norton loved the show's ending
The 37-year-old actor - who played murderer Tommy Lee Royce in the hit TV series - loved working on the BBC show and he's hailed writer Sally Wainwright for giving 'Happy Valley' a very "human" feel.
James told GQ: "The ending was sort of perfect, in a Sally Wainwright sort of way.
"It was fireworks but it wasn’t fireworks. It was sitting over a kitchen table and that is where ‘Happy Valley’ really thrived. That’s the heart of the whole show. Cups of tea over kitchen tables in kitchens in Yorkshire.
"It’s not a big stunt set pieces on wires and jumping off cliffs, and guns and fireworks. It’s gentle, it’s domestic, it’s human."
James has often wrestled with the question of whether Tommy is a "psychopath". But ultimately, James feels there's still a degree of "humanity" to the character.
The actor said: "There is this constant question ‘is Tommy a psychopath?’ and I have talked about this with people in the production and Sally and Sarah [Lancashire, his co-star].
"The hints were almost laid in the very first series, in episode five, when he’s just been stabbed and he’s facing his own mortality, his own death. And he’s sitting in that high rise and he bursts into tears. He thinks, ‘s***, I’ve wasted my life and if I had a different childhood maybe I could have been something in me.’ And if you think back to there, that was where Sally was already planning and carving out this ending I think, because there is humanity there."
Tagged in Sarah Lancashire Siobhan Finneran James Norton