Death of a Family Man

Very good episode, mysterious, well-acted and well-written, though as usual it's hard to understand some bits of dialogue in thick local dialect. Vera doesn't tear strips off her colleagues in this one - something must be wrong! LOL. I thought Billy Howle, who played the son, also called Billy, was outstanding, revealing the deep anguish of this troubled young man.

Businessman John Shearwood is found floating in the water, his doting family believe he was working away, Vera and Joe are on the case.

It's a great way to end the fourth series, it's an excellent episode. I love the twist, it's a deep mystery, but straightforward enough to follow.

I was excited to see Robert Glenister's name in the credits, but he didn't get the biggest of parts, I thought Billy Howle who played Billy was awesome, Colin Tierney was great also.

The usual high quality production, it looks and sounds terrific.

I appreciated the reference to a previous episode, not something the show generally does, we see Joe's daughter still feeling the effects of the death of the woman on the train.

Vera wears some truly hideous outfits here, she gets away with them of course.

Notable for being the final episode to feature Joe, David Leon moved on, a shame he wasn't given some sort of send off.

Excellent, 9/10.

I haven't seen many of these shows yet but this one is definitely the best for me, so far. Lots of new facts springing up along the way makes it enjoyable. English is much easier to understand for me in this episode. Being from Quebec with an excellent grasp of spoken and written English, I have had some trouble with the Geordie dialect. But who knows, maybe I'm getting better at it. This episode is well written, full of twists and turns, so much so that we really can't guess who done it until the end. Actors do an excellent job and I love to see Vera's team busying around doing competent work. In many cop shows, there are often lose ends left dangling. But not here. Everything is tied up pretty well at the end. Definitely becoming a fan of Vera.

When John Shearwood, a self-employed man, is found floating in the river with his shoes tied together, Vera (Brenda Blethyn) and Joe (David Leon) are brought in on the case.

They find that his hands have bruised knuckles, so they know a struggle took place. Investigating his family, they find nothing -- the family lives in the country, though the victim also had a flat in town. Vera learns that John's son Billy, a recovering drug addict, was in the vicinity at the time of the murder.

A customs officer visits Vera and informs her that Shearwood was working as a confidential informant to uncover a smuggling ring headed by Shearwood's boss, Mark Donovan. Donovan, however, was not near the murder scene at the time of the crime.

She then finds out that Shearwood is leading a double life with a woman named Gemma; but Gemma is in fact the mother of a little boy John's son accidentally ran over and killed.

It's up to Vera and Joe to unravel the various clues and happenings and figure out who killed Shearwood and why.

Interesting episode, with enough story to keep the viewer involved. As I have said before, Vera seems to have lightened up a little this season. I'm sure this is an acting choice by Blethyn as time has passed since the character's father died, and she's coming out of her dark feelings a little.

This may have been Leon's last episode, as I understand he left the show. I hope I heard wrong. He and Vera make a good team, and he's nice on the eyes as well.

I enjoyed the banter between Vera and Owen. He would have been a good love interest for her. Vera needs some excitement in her life other than her murder cases. Vera really is a loner.

Celine was funny. Joe's family always tells on Joe and how much he talks about Vera at home.

I'm so sad that Joe is leaving. They make such a great team. I did see that he returns in coming episodes. It will be interesting to see if the chemistry will still be there. I often wondered if he put up with her just to learn from her or if he really cared for her.

I enjoyed this episode although a little complicated and unbelievable.