Hidden Depths

This first episode introduces Brenda Blethyn's Vera as a curmudgeonly but determined detective inspector in the sparse north east landscape. She is muddling on after the recent death of her father whom she might not had always got on with.

Gina McKee plays a distraught mother whose son is found drowned just a few months after his friend was also found drowned. When a woman teacher is found dead, Vera thinks that the deaths are somehow linked especially by the way the bodies are laid out surrounded by flowers

Vera is assisted by her younger partner Sergeant Joe Ashworth (David Leon) both think a group of bird watching friends might hold a clue to the deaths.

An interesting starter with a few guest stars such as Murray Head playing a philandering professor. Maybe the episode tried too hard to disguise the actual culprit.

By chance, ITV3 in the UK began Vera from the start on 04JAN2021, showing the first episode of Vera just after the first-ever episode of "Wycliffe" so that we could compare 2010 coppering to 1994 coppering.

First episode; Vera is a bit cranky until we work out that her father has died (she will take over his ancient LandRover tomorrow night in S01Ep02!) and the distinctive Vera-mobile will emerge.

This show clearly had potential from the start - which has been expanded and exploited over the intervening near-decade. Watch the scenery, enjoy her witty one-liners and marvel at the characterisations. A good ensemble cast is assembled (which has changed and evolved over the years).

Well worth two hours of your time on a cold winter's evening.

A teenager, Luke Armstrong, has been murdered in his home. Soon after this a young teacher, Lily Marsh, is murdered. On both cases is Detective Chief Inspector Vera Stanhope and Detective Sergeant Joe Ashworth. DCI Stanhope believes the cases are linked.

A good start to the series. Quite intriguing and the perpetrator is far from obvious, making for a good mystery. Decent engagement too as we meet Vera and her team plus all the people the murders affect.

Far from perfect though. The plot is a bit clumsy at times and certain things seem to be there for style over substance. Once the murderer is known, some aspects of the plot don't make that much sense, though were intriguing when they appeared.

Coming off of "Midsomer Murders" then more recently "Lewis" this was certainly a jarring contrast. No beautiful homes, architecture or rubbing elbows with the upper crust. No bevy of beautiful glamorous starlet actresses.

I was only going to watch this episode and bolt up until The 3/4 mark of the episode. The wall to wall gloominess then kicked in to a fairly decent final 1/4. It will be interesting if future episodes are less depressing. The ending topped off a very creepy plot theme.

Brenda Blethyn and David Leon are quite good together. But, in general the episode lacked personality and went very heavy on police work and gloom. I'll give at least one more episode a try and go from there if I continue with the series. I usually like my detectives to have more of a zest for life.

Detective Chief Inspector Vera Stanhope is a frumpy, late middle-aged, hard working and empathetic detective who drinks too much. She's also smart and gets the job done. In this episode she and her colleagues investigate the murder of a 15 year old boy and a subsequent murder. The mystery itself was not particularly interesting and the best part of the show was in introducing us to Vera with all her flaws, strengths, regrets and fears. It's odd but one of my problems with the show was that I had a hard time at first telling apart the two leading support actresses as they looked so much alike in their dress, hair and general appearance, at least from afar. As much as I like Blethyn, I think this is the kind of series that grows on one after time and fortunately Netflix has the first four episodes so I'll be able to test this. An observation on the title of the series - why is it that there's Morse, Wycliffe, Lynley, Murdoch, Lewis, etc. but when the lead detective is a woman, the first name is used?