Vera

9:00pm – Friday, July 13 on Seven

- SEASON FINAL

This week on VERA, DI Vera Stanhope, usually awkward and disinterested around children finds a kindred spirit in the boy of a murdered woman. Along the way she realises that the key to the case lies deep in the child’s memory.

This episode follows DCI Vera Stanhope and her team as they uncover the murder of Margaret Wilde (Laura Norton), whose body has been discovered in a hedgerow, moments after her death, by PC Edwards (Riley Jones).

Margaret’s eleven year old son, Adam (Sam Jarvis), escaped the violent attack, only to fall into the water of a freezing cold pond, where Vera finds him twenty minutes later. She wastes no time in taking matters into her own hands and wades into the water to pull him out. Against all the odds, Adam survives and becomes a vital witness to his mother’s murder.

Sergeant Joe Ashworth is at first held up in court as a witness to a previous investigation, leaving way for DC Holly Lawson (Wunmi Mosaku) to step up to the plate and prove herself to Vera. However a connection between the two cases results in Joe returning to the investigation when Adam recognises Judge Patricia Carmichael (Kerry Fox).

Vera isn’t convinced that Bobby Slater’s (Kieran O’Brien) brief affair with Margaret is not all that it seems, especially when Joe discovers a petrol receipt putting him five minutes from where she was murdered.

As the team delve deeper into Margaret’s past they unearth deadly secrets and murderous consequences, fuelled by power and money, but above all a mother’s love.

Vera, usually awkward and disinterested around children, finds a kindred spirit in Adam and begins to realise along the way that the key to the investigation lies deep within his memory, and someone he calls ‘shiny man’.

VERA stars BRENDA BLETHYN as DCI Vera Stanhope, DAVID LEON as Sgt Joe Ashworth, WUNMI MOSAKU as DC Holly Lawson, JON MORRISON as DC Kenny and PAUL RITTER as Billy Cartwright.

9:00pm – Friday, July 6 on Seven

This week on VERA, a woman is murdered in the remote Northumbrian countryside leading DI Vera Stanhope back to a place from her past. Shadowy liaisons, conflicting sympathies and injustices from the past emerge as Vera closes in on the murderer.

When the murder of Bella Furness (Jane Holman) is discovered by environmentalist Anne Preece (Daniela Nardini) at the isolated Baikie’s Cottage, DCI Vera Stanhope (Brenda Blethyn) is brought back to a place full of bittersweet childhood memories and is reminded of an unsolved case from her earlier career which still haunts her.

Delving into the local politics surrounding Godfrey Waugh’s (Daniel Flynn) controversial proposal to dig a quarry, Vera soon discovers that the home of Bella and her housebound husband, Dougie (Jack McBride), holds the right of way to the site, a key motive for the killer.

Bella also had an ally in her strong opposition to the quarry in the shape of Edmund Fulwell (John Lynch), an ex-landowner now reduced to living an isolated existence in a shack in the woods.

When Anne recalls seeing a woman moments before Bella’s death, who matches the description of Bev MacDonald (Elizabeth Carling), Vera is forced to face the past and the unexplained mystery that surrounds the disappearance of Bev’s son.

Hard at work, Vera and her team; find motives and evidence in the unlikeliest of places. After many shadowy liaisons and conflicting sympathies they realise that the truth could be hidden within the land itself.

VERA stars BRENDA BLETHYN as DCI Vera Stanhope, DAVID LEON as Sgt Joe Ashworth, WUNMI MOSAKU as DC Holly Lawson, JON MORRISON as DC Kenny and PAUL RITTER as Billy Cartwright.

PLEASE NOTE: VERA screens in Sydney and Brisbane only.

9:00pm – Friday, June 29 on Seven

This week on VERA, DCI Vera Stanhope sets out to retrospectively resolve the murder of a teenage girl. As secrets and lies are exposed Vera closed in on the truth and lays ghosts from the past to rest.

Set around the Northumberland coast, ‘Telling Tales’ follows DCI 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.

VERA stars BRENDA BLETHYN as DCI Vera Stanhope and DAVID LEON as Sgt Joe Ashworth.