The Darkest Evening (Vera Stanhope)

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Actress Brenda Blethyn aka DCI Vera Stanhope with Phil Bedford, Port of Tyne assistant operations manager, cruise and ferry (Image: Port of Tyne) And Brenda has since revealed that scenes were also shot on Holy Island, with popular pub The Ship Inn changing its name to play a key role in the plot. Filming almost went unnoticed when it moved on to Gosforth, where Vera's 4x4 was spotted by The Chronicle in Moor Crescent outside a house being used in a new storyline; while work under way around the busy Clayton Street in Newcastle was a bit more obvious to passers-by. She added: "There is such a variety of locations in the area. From places like Corbridge in the Tyne Valley to the Northumberland coastline and many other varied locations. I also like working in the vibrant city of Newcastle which was the main venue for Sally Abbot’s “For The Grace of God”. Series 11 locations

Filming for that had been first noticed in Tynemouth in September 2020 where Blethyn - masked up between scenes - was seen, together with Vera's familiar Land Rover, in Beach Road and Broadway. In the opening episode, called Witness, the story started with the finding of a body at the base of Collingwood Monument. There is a similar moment between Vera and Aidan in Vera season 12, but in the novel it’s far longer and Vera goes into real detail about how she realized he could’ve established a fake alibi and how Lorna had been where she was because she’d been waiting for Nial that fateful night - the shortest night of the year.With huge swathes of Northumberland already aired on-screen during the drama's lengthy run, filming expanded over the years across the region, with more spots around Durham and Newcastle have been playing a role. A murder investigation hits close to home for an experienced police officer in the north of England. Vera star Brenda Blethyn enjoys an ice cream treat during a break in filming in Station Road, Corbridge (Image: TimMcGuinness/ChronicleLive)

Who doesn't love 'large and shabby' Vera Stanhope, the blunt detective in Ann Cleeves's Northumberland police procedurals? She is already one of the genre immortals."Fans will enjoy matching wits with Cleeves’ eccentric sleuth right up to the dangerous surprise in her denouement. At the time Blethyn calls it "a very impressive location", adding that the victim was also shown on board the Shields Ferry before his death. Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival. Taking a wrong turn in a snowstorm, Inspector Vera Stanhope finds a car with only a baby inside. With no cellphone service, she drives to the nearest house, which just happens to belong to her estranged relatives. Vera’s cousin Juliet and Juliet’s husband, Mark Bolitho, are giving a dinner party in hopes of courting prospective donors to support Mark’s plan of converting their estate into an art center, promoting Mark’s artistic interests and keeping the faltering estate alive. When a farmer tied to the estate discovers the body of a murdered woman in the snow near the main house, Vera becomes involved in a case that bring her closer to her only family. The car belongs to a retired schoolteacher who often loaned it to Lorna Falstone, the mother of a baby son. The suspects in her murder include the dinner guests along with Juliet’s snobbish mother, Harriet, and Dorothy Felling, a superior housekeeper who lives with her husband and child in a tied cottage. It seems unlikely that a madman wandered out of the storm to kill Lorna, who’s never identified the father of her child. After the baby is taken to Lorna’s parents, who own a farm nearby, a second murder spurs Vera and her team to investigate a tangled web of family connections and buried secrets.

She has also been filming in Elvaston Park Road, Hexham; Allendale village; Port of Sunderland and Marlborough Park in Washington and last summer Blethyn was also pictured enjoying an ice cream during a break in filming in Corbridge. She said: "Sadly, Vera doesn’t get to go on the ferry but I have been on it myself as a passenger.” Holy Island causeway also featured and she said: "I love it when they are able to include that as part of the story." The “Vera effect” - credited with the sharp rise of tourists following the airing of each series - has also led to local residents proving keen to reacquaint themselves with their home turf. Mail on Sunday Cleeves’s Northumberland novels are strong on atmosphere, combining old-fashioned detective work with a modern take on class Ann worked as a probation officer, bird observatory cook, and auxiliary coastguard before she started writing. She is a member of "Murder Squad," working with other British northern writers to promote crime fiction. Ann is also a passionate champion for libraries and was a National Libraries Day Ambassador in 2016. Ann lives in North Tyneside near where the Vera ...Vera explained, “I lost consciousness for a bit and only came to when I heard you shouting. He’d have finished me off, though, if he’d realized.”