Brenda Blethyn Returns to Vera

Filming has started on a four part series of ITV crime drama Vera. The show stars Brenda Blethyn in the lead role.

 

 

The new run entitled Telling Tales is currently recording episodes in Northumberland with a host of new guest stars appearing along side Blethyn including Gary Lewis and Lolita Chakrabarti

 

Set around the Northumberland coast, the second film follows DI Vera Stanhope (Brenda Blethyn) as she sets out to retrospectively resolve the mystery of Abigail Mantel’s (Amber Britton-Dyer) murder.

 
It’s only after Jeanie Long’s (Sarah Preston) suicide hits the headlines that new evidence comes to light exonerating her for the murder of fifteen-year-old Abigail.  Throughout her eleven year sentence, Jeanie pleaded her innocence with Probation Officer, Robert Winter (Gary Lewis), but no one, including her own father, Michael (Alan Williams), believed her.  Abigail was found strangled in the countryside near her home and was the teenage daughter of Jeanie’s boyfriend, Keith Mantel (Hugo Speer). 

 
Vera, accompanied by her loyal and long suffering team; Sergeant Joe Ashworth (David Leon), DC Holly Lawson (Wunmi Mosaku) and Forensic Pathologist Billy Cartwright (Paul Ritter), delve into the secrets and lies of a small community that continues to be rocked by Abigail’s murder.  For some, the wounds remain close to the surface, while others seek to put the past behind them. 

 
In her inimitable style, Vera strips back the varnish disguising the truth, but not before the case takes a violent and unexpected turn with another – potentially connected – murder.  With a murderer on the loose, tension and suspicion run high between Vera and Caroline Fletcher (Lolita Chakrabarti), a former DI who convicted Jeanie of Abigail’s murder now linked to Keith. Vera uses her skill and instinct to expose the lies and half-truths at the heart of a small community, while setting the ghosts of Abigail and Jeanie to rest.

 
The script, which is based on the book Telling Tales by Ann Cleeves, has been adapted for television by Paul Rutman who wrote the first Vera film and has also written for Marple and Lewis.

 

The series will air on ITV1.