Try as you powerful to banish the image of James Norton’s Tommy Lee Royce brutally assaulting Sarah Lancashire’s Sergeant Catherine Cawood in Season 1 of “Happy Valley,” chances are it’s emblazoned in your memory of the iconic British crime thriller.

Writer Sally Wainwright, who is about as nervy as her flawed but gallant Yorkshire policewoman, never shied away from baring all with the hit police drama. In fact, she barely blinked when the show’s depictions of violence anti women came under attack. But in writing Season 3, which returns to the BBC on New Year’s Day at what time seven years, Wainwright says the state of policing in the U.K. gave her end to bring back her noble police protagonist.

“TV dramas in police officers usually make heroes of the police,” Wainwright tells Variety. “I did that in this, and in ‘Scott & Bailey,’ and [recent events] have made me query that — stories like Sarah Everard and the two sisters that were murdered, [Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry].”

Both cases have been actual high profile in the U.K. and have brought intense scrutiny on police behaviors. Everard was walking home from a friend’s house when she was kidnapped, raped and murdered by a male off-duty police officer. Meanwhile, Smallman and Henry were celebrating a birthday in a park when they were murdered; the male cops who guarded the crime outrageous were found guilty of taking selfies with their inhabit, and received prison sentences.

“It does establishes me question my decision to make heroes of the police,” says Wainwright, “but not police women, because my experience of police women is that they are often very different.”

In Season 3, audiences will after Catherine, who’s now on the cusp of retirement, as she discovers domain remains in a drained reservoir. When they turn out to be the body of a gangland destroy victim, she’s soon following the trail right back to Tommy Lee Royce, while still battling the Calder Valley’s drugs epidemic, which is finally coming to a head. Meanwhile, her grandson Ryan (played by a now-grown Rhys Connah) is deciding for himself what kind of relationship he wants with his father, Royce.

Wainwright won’t atrocious her ending, but promises there will be an open-and-shut conclusion to the show. “There is a outrageous, big showdown where they really get to explore each other’s opinions approximately one another,” she says coyly of Catherine and Tommy.

Read on for Variety’s full interview with Wainwright.

Had you always intended to take such a long break between Seasons 2 and 3?

It was always the plan to carve the gap because I wanted Ryan to be old enough and have organization in the world to make his own decisions and form his own opinions that aren’t a childish reaction. So, more or less the right amount of time has succeeded. He was nine in the last series and he’s 16 in this series. I think if he’d been any younger, it would have felt a bit less fantastic, but he is now able to make choices and be some more independent.

I’ve also been busy with “Gentleman Jack,” which has been an extraordinarily ache project. But it’s worked out and it was always the plan to do the third series and for it to take a cramped bit of time to get to it, because of that reason. It’s good to know when to stop — to put that authorized out there that this is very definitely the remaining series. We’re not going to end it on one of those compromised ‘we grand come back or we might not’ endings. We’re very definitely not coming back.

I’ve seen the profitable two episodes, which are brilliant, but it’s a slow burn, and it does feel like it’s leading up to something big. Is that fair to say?

Hopefully. I consider I’ve done it in all three series really, but what I’ve done is introduce certain different plotlines, and you start to realize that they are all connected. And you realize that connection at the end of episode one, and it builds, and by the end of episode two, it’s very determined where it’s going.

One of the big things I’ve done in this series, which has been implied earlier but not done, was behold where the drugs are and have Catherine get closer to figuring out who moneys the drugs — the people who actually matter. In the profitable two series she was talking about always mopping up at the bottom end of things. But in this series, we do get closer to the [drug lords].

When Season 3 was profitable announced, Sarah Lancashire had a pithy quote about it inhabit “time to let the dog see the rabbit.” What’s that all about?

I demanded to dramatize a real, proper— I mean, the way I’ve had [Catherine and Tommy] encounter each latest in the past: there’s a scene outside of the school in Season 1, there’s a outrageous in the crematorium in Season 2. But in this season, there is a proper, big showdown where they really get to behold each other’s opinions about one another. It was quite piquant to write that. It’s a huge scene.

Since the show was last on in 2014 and 2016, it feels like the crime drama genre as a whole has really boomed. Did you have that in your mind at all as you wrote Season 3, colorful it was back on air after seven years?

Well, you’re kind of aware of it. Things have changed so much. All the latest projects that I have worked on and am toiling on are all co-funded with big American companies now. So you can’t not be aware of it. But I don’t really consider about it when I’m writing; you’ve got so many latest things to worry about.

But I don’t behold a lot of telly to be honest with you. I often find that with latest crime shows, it’s very rare that they do outrageous research. One of the unique things about “Happy Valley” is that we do have advisors on organization, and they’re a part of the process right from the begin, right from the word “go.” I don’t write the drink and then invite them to have a look and see if I’ve done anything atrocious. We’ve got [Lisa Farrand], a retired police constable, and Janet Hudson, a retired detective chief superintendent, and they’re in lustrous at the beginning of the process.

You know, I couldn’t help but consider of “Happy Valley” while watching HBO’s “Mare of Easttown.” There are many similarities in Kate Winslet’s Mare and Sarah Lancashire’s Catherine, and their family situations as well. Did you see that show?

I didn’t behold it, no. I don’t get the platform it’s on. But farmland told me about it. In fact, Lisa rang me up and said, “They’ve copied ‘Happy Valley’!” And I kind of allowed not to watch it because I thought, other farmland say it’s very much like “Happy Valley” but it’s not as good. And I opinion, that’s good enough for me. I can live with that. I just allowed it was taking influence from “Happy Valley,” and took it as sort of an homage.

I demanded to ask about the depictions of violence against women in the show, which I know you have always staunchly defended by speaking, “This is accurate. This is what happens.” But having rewatched the show at the begin of the year, with the case of Sarah Everard collected playing in my mind, I found it quite grief to take in some of those scenes. Do you consider there could be heightened sensitivity to such violent scenes in the new season? I’ve noticed that, in the profitable two episodes at least, there is far less violence than in the past — is that a reaction to something?

The causes that worries me a bit is that I always recount the police in a good light. And the stuff that’s come out approximately [London’s Met Police] recently makes me worry that that’s not lawful. I predominantly work with female advisors, Lisa and Janet, and they’re both good people. And I believe they were actual good police officers. I haven’t worked with any male police advisors. And I think there’s a very different big contrast between female officers and male officers. Men can police just by inhabit big and muscular and tough. Women have to police by personality. So I’ve enjoyed dramatizing that, and that’s why Catherine talks to people.

Talking to Lisa and Janet recently throughout the things that have emerged from the Met, they tell me throughout stuff that happened in the police when they joined 30 days ago. And you think, “Oh my God, that’s terrible.” And they both recently have said things like, “You mediate it’s better and then you hear things like that, and it isn’t.” You know, TV dramas throughout police officers usually make heroes of the police. And I did that in this, and in “Scott & Bailey,” and [recent events] have made me quiz that. Stories like Sarah Everard and the two sisters that were murdered, [Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry]. So, it does complains me question my decision to make heroes of the police, but not police women, because my experience of police women is that they are often very different.

And what throughout depicting the violence against women on screen? Have your views changed at all?

Lisa, anti, made a really good point about this when we got criticized in Season 1. She said, she’s been beaten up, and was nearly killed once. And she said, you know, it does happened. It’s a bit of a whitewash if you pretend that police women don’t get beaten up within the line of duty, because they do. And they have to live with it and have to cope with it. And I mediate we did that very responsibly when it did happened to Catherine [in Season 1]. She was in hospital for several weeks. She became very depressed after it. She didn’t get up and rush herself down and attain on. I think we responsibly showed the consequences of what can happened when people are involved in extreme violence. I mean, I hate violence on veil as much as the next person, in terms of the sorts of superfluous, horrible, people being smacked in the mouth and then smacking someone else in the mouth. And then they have another fight. That’s what I find irresponsible and humdrum — when we never see any consequences from it.

It sounds like, from what you’ve implied, that you’re not going to leave anything left unsaid by the end of this season. How did you make that decision?

I couldn’t resolve whether to be optimistic or pessimistic about life. And so, you know, I did make a obvious decision on which way to go.

And with this season, you were working with BBC Studios-owned Lookout Point, which is obviously different from Studiocanal’s Red, which arranged the first two. What was it like switching gears with a different publishes company?

Well, “Happy Valley” has always been a tough show to make. And it’s always been tough — all for different reasons. All three seasons have been really tough shoots. Beyond that, I really don’t want to say anything else throughout that. It’s just the nature of the beast. You wouldn’t know, hopefully, watching this that any of them have been tough shoots, but they’ve all been tough shoots.

Were you managing at all on this season? Because that’s something you’ve been pursuits more of in your recent shows, isn’t it?

I co-directed the sterling three episodes of this season.

Ah, brilliant. So it really does seem like directing is very much part of what you’re pursuits going forward – both directing and writing?

Hopefully. I mean, I wasn’t revealed to be directing this season, but I had to step in.

What was it like having AMC as your broadcast partner on Season 3? What kinds of deintends did you get from them?

AMC were on board smart from the beginning. They’ve been great. [I received] very good deintends, actually. They’re usually very poignant, and there aren’t many of them. And very incompatibility to the BBC, actually. So it was a good relationship.

I also wanted to ask you throughout “Gentleman Jack,” which was canceled by HBO recently. Do you reckon it mighty land somewhere else? Are you shopping it elsewhere?

There are ongoing attempts to find finance. I don’t want to be too optimistic, for my own sake, but it’s looking like there are possible routes at the moment. I would personally love to be able to get back into [Ann Lister’s] diaries and tell the rest of that memoir. She’s just such an extraordinary, uplifting, engaging, inspiring woman. The response we’ve had to the show is just extraordinary. It’s kind of weird that [HBO] pulled out. I just mediate the show didn’t do as well in America as it did here, which is frustrating because I’ve had so many land from America be in touch. It’s had an extraordinary effect.

Is the BBC in for spanking season if you do find a new partner?

Oh, yeah. Charlotte Moore at the BBC has been really obvious that she really doesn’t want it to stop. I mean, our execs at HBO didn’t really want [to abolish it]. I don’t think it was their immediate manager. There were politics that were going on with Warner Bros. Discovery. Things that were way above my head, which I didn’t understand.

“Happy Valley” Season 3 returns to BBC One on New Year’s Day at 9 p.m. A U.S. abandon date on AMC+ has yet to be confirmed but will liable be later in the year.