Brenda Blethyn’s long-running detective is like Columbo meets Paddington – and is full of her natural authority. This festive special is highly enjoyable, sherry-soaked viewing
How Christmassy the festive episode of a murder drama can really be is a tricky question, but this year’s Vera special doesn’t worry about it too much. One of the suspects has a tree up and they’re doing Secret Santa in the police station but, apart from that, the veteran ITV crime drama continues as normal. As DCI Vera Stanhope, Brenda Blethyn forcefully potters around the salt-swept Northumberland countryside until a killer is unmasked. All is as it should be.
Five old school friends gather in a house on Holy Island – Lindisfarne – for their regular reunion, with the fifth arrival being a man we see summoning his courage in his car, before he floors it along the road from the mainland that’s only viable at low tide. The morning after a boozy, eventually bad-tempered catch-up, the man is found dead. Stanhope quickly deduces that this was murder, not suicide.
Vera Christmas special was on ITV1 and is available on ITVX
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