Vera, ITV1

Brenda Blethyn shines as Ann Cleeves's rumpled Geordie detective

by Adam SweetingSunday, 01 May 2011

Brenda Blethyn as Tyneside 'tec Vera Stanhope, with David Leon as Sgt Joe Ashworth

ITV1 really, really loves that succulent two-hour slot in the middle of Sunday evening, and anything that goes in there has the legacy of Morse, Lewis, Frost, Miss Marple et al to live up to. The latest cunning plan for Detective Sunday is to recruit the rather excellent Brenda Blethyn to play DCI Vera Stanhope in adaptations of Ann Cleeves's novels, set in the author's native North-East.

Her dress sense is Oxfam-gumshoe, with all expense spared. She makes Columbo look like Tom Ford

rating

Editor Rating:

Average: 4 (1 vote)

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Find Ann Cleeves's Vera Stanhope novels on Amazon

Vera, Series 7, review - 'brilliant Blethyn stuck in bog-standard drama'

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Permalink Submitted by Novocastrian (not verified) on Mon, 02/05/2011 - 09:56

Strong support, too, from David Leon as Ashworth, who brings authentic Geordiness to the part despite being altogether far too pretty. This is a poor choice of words as it seems you are saying that he is too pretty the be from Newcastle. I hope this is not what you meant as people form the north east are often as beautiful as the ravishing landscape.

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Permalink Submitted by Adam Sweeting on Mon, 02/05/2011 - 13:22

No, Novocastrian, what I meant was that David Leon was too pretty to be a gruff and gritty police detective. Apols to anyone in the north east who thought I was trying to abuse them. I lived in Whitley Bay a long time ago (and loved it), so I'm well aware that the locals are all absolutely gorgeous.

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Permalink Submitted by Silver Knight (not verified) on Tue, 03/05/2011 - 06:59

No, no no! My wife and I are voracious fans of tv crime drama and this is the worst we have seen for a very long time. Totally unbelievable plot and filled with characters you simply didn't care about. And as for Vera herself - words fail me. Blethyn is 64 for Gods sake. How many detectives are still working at that age? At least with Frost we aged with him but even then he became a joke. I cannot listen to Vera's screeching voice ever again. Simply dreadful. On a positive note the countryside looked lovely

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Permalink Submitted by George Payne (not verified) on Thu, 05/05/2011 - 12:51

I live in Kent and with referance to Vera, North East accent was so strong i could only understand about one in ten words especially where brenda was concerned She was not helped by the quality of the sound track, however if that had been perfect i still think i would not have coped with the dialect.I was so looking foreward to it but i suspect like a few million other viewers south of Manchester. I changed channel,had to. A tip from me to you -- the further you move from Kings English the fewer viewers you will have and an unsaleable product. This programn only catered for people around Newcastle. Funny , you have only had good reviees. George Payne

Yes David Leon is beautiful,

Permalink Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 21/09/2011 - 19:30

Yes David Leon is beautiful, but so talented too. Ignorant to say the programme was for people around Newcastle. I have watched my DVDs over and over again and I'm a Londoner. The accents are delicious - though Geordie is hard to fake and Brenda suffers at times - and the supporting and lead actors just brilliant; I enjoyed the way they intoned every line. Only thing is, the plots weren't exciting enough and the 'a-ha moments' weren't convincing. Bring on series 2. I shall be glued and buying it on DVD.

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