It drew to a close on Sunday after a gripping finale that drew in 7.5million viewers, making it this year's most-watched TV programme
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 lecturers on 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 said.
"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].
READ MORE: How Happy Valley became one of the UK's most successful TV shows
"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."
READ MORE: Review: Happy Valley's five-star exit from our TV screens
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.
READ MORE: University for 'common good' to offer free breakfasts to staff and students
"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."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here