BBC's Happy Valley part of Glasgow Caledonian University curriculum

However, while the doors have firmly been closed on another series of BBC's Happy Valley, the characters and some of its most pivotal scenes will live on in lecture theatres at a Scots university.

A professor who teaches the only full-time master's degree dedicated to TV drama says she will be incorporating scenes from Sally Wainwright's "masterpiece" drama into her lessons.

Professor Ann Marie Di Mambro, who lecturer at Glasgow Caledonian University's MA in TV Fiction Writing, said the series had "blindsided" the public in its brilliance, avoiding dramatic cliches with the "perfect marriage of brilliant writing and perfect casting."

She said she intended to look at particular scenes with her students, particularly those that defy what is generally taught about writing for TV.

"It goes against a lot of what we teach, that's what is so wonderful about it," she told our sister title The Herald.

"The penultimate episode ends with a phone call between two people (Tommy Lee Royce and son Ryan).

"You tend to teach people not to over-write the dialogue," she said. "Phone calls can be quite dull. Don't have scenes that are too long.

"But because it's so unique and so original [it works].

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"I would imagine that it's written from the heart and these are characters that the writer really believes in, who are so flawed," she said.

"It's so deeply, deeply emotional," she added. "It's raw from start to finish.

"Her daughter has been raped and has killed herself and it's all back story.

"Some editors might say to bring that into the present day but the decisions Sally Wainwright has made I think have been excellent.

"She doesn't shy away from it at all and that is the thing I teach my students more than all.

"Drama is about emotions. It's not trying to be clever."

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She said the fact that the central character - Catherine Cawood, played by Sarah Lancashire-  is a single woman on the verge of retirement and "so charismatic" was also fairly exceptional in TV drama.

"There's no romances really but to me there are two big love stories in it," she added.

"There is the two sisters and the other central relationship is the one between grandmother and grandson.

"These are relationships that are so worth exploring.

"You don't really see much of these in prime-time drama, they are usually reserved for soaps and she has shone a microscope on them."

The skill in her writing, she adds, is to leave viewers conflicted about Tommy Lee Royce, played by James Norton, a character who shouldn't really engender much or any sympathy. 

"He's so despicable but we've got glimpses," she said.

"His mother was a prostitute and was murdered so he's had a terrible upbringing.

"I didn't feel any sympathy for him until the end, in one of the final scenes.

"When he went into the house - and its the power of the acting as well as the writing - and he was looking round.

"You know that he's feeling, 'here's a decent home' when he is looking through the photo album. He's never had any chances in his life."

"Now and again you realise, how awful his life has been, she says, such as when he remarks that he's never been abroad before when he picked up in a van by mob boss Darius Knezevic after his dramatic courtroom escape.

"It's phenomenal, what she's doing," said Prof Di Mambro.

"I don't know if she had it all worked out from the start or if she's come to each series fresh with new ideas as it expanded.

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"I think if other writers could figure out how she did it, they would all be laughing. 

"I think it's blindsided us, it's so good."

She said it was her belief that the best drama usually came from writers who had a grounding in soaps. Sally Wainwright developed her writing skills on Coronation Street, from 1994 to 1999  and early in her career, she was a scriptwriter on radio serial drama The Archers.

She has since said that working on continuing drama was "a great education in discipline and a lesson that great stories are hard work"

"They don't shy away from the big emotional scenes," said the lecturer.

"There were scenes where [James Norton's character] is smoking a cigarette and it's so sinister - you just have to see him on the screen.

"I would think this will have done his career no harm. He's obviously brilliant."

She said the last episode had delivered everything viewers could hope for and it was the right decision to end the series there.

"It was so driven by that central horror of the man who raped her daughter and that's concluded," she said.

"It's a standalone masterpiece."