TV Series Notebook: Vera.
"Vera" (Amazon Prime), British crime drama series based on the Vera Stanhope series of novels by Ann Cleeves. So far, 11 Seasons/Series, and a 12th shad begun filming. We are currently on Series/Season 2. Stars Brenda Blethyn as the principal character, Detective Chief Inspector Vera Stanhope. ENGROSSING, accessible, fast-paced yet devoid of actioner bombast. Each story/case ends in one 1.5 hour episode. "Vera" is Ms Blethyn's show. I saw her only once before this unfeigned, unpretentious police procedural, in Mike Leigh's 1996 superb drama "Secrets & Lies." Now I get the urge to locate/watch her other movies. Vera is a nearly retired employee of the fictional Northumberland & City Police, who is painstakingly obsessive about her work and driven by her own demons that she vehemently wards off. She lumbers along in an unkempt, "unsexy" swagger but her clinically calculating mind that is backstopped by a dismissive personalit