I am bereft. After 14 series over 13 years, we’ve just watched the final two episodes of Vera, featuring the dishevelled and irascible detective from the fictitious Northumberland and City Police Force, played with great panache by the wonderful Brenda Blethyn. Based in and around England’s most northerly county, Vera blends the gritty streets of Newcastle with the desolate beauty of shore, moor and heath. The Northumberland landscape itself is an essential character. Vera wouldn’t be Vera without the dramatic vistas and hit-and-miss Geordie accents.
I love a traditional whodunnit – all that CGI-stuffed superhero nonsense isn’t for me. Vera does it old school in her battered Land Rover wearing her signature outfit of floppy hat and weather-beaten raincoat. Despite the twisting plots and false leads that make the brain hurt, Vera always gets her man. Because not all heroes wear capes.
And I’m not alone in loving a bit of Vera; the show is broadcast in around 180 territories worldwide and dubbed into various languages. But now Brenda Blethyn, at the incredible age of 78, has decided to hang up her mac and hat for good. And who can blame her? I’m missing her already.