The worst episodes of Vera
Ranked by viewer rating, lows first. Vote on a placement to back it or contest it.
- 01
After Jeannie Long commits suicide, evidence comes to light exonerating her for the murder of teenager Abigail Mantel 11 years earlier. DCI Vera Stanhope and her team set out to retrospectively solve the killing, delving into the secrets and lies of a small community which still feels the repercussions of Abigail's death. Then the case takes an violent and unexpected turn - can Vera use her skill and instinct to find the truth and lay ghosts to rest?
- 02
When a woman is murdered in the remote Northumbrian countryside, DCI Vera Stanhope is led back to a place from her past. As she and her team investigate, they uncover shadowy liaisons, conflicting sympathies, and hidden injustices.
- 03
DCI Vera Stanhope rescues a young boy from a freezing pond after he escapes from a violent attack which left his mother dead. As Vera and her team investigate what happened to the child, they unravel a web of deadly secrets and discover a murderous sequence of events set in motion by power, money and a mother's love. Although she is usually awkward and uninterested around children, Vera finds a kindred spirit in the boy, and begins to realise that the key to the investigation may lie hidden in his memory
- 04
Vera's reunion with her first-ever sergeant, Stuart Macken, occurs under tragic circumstances when his house is petrol-bombed. Stuart is badly burned by the attack and his 18-year-old daughter Stella is left fighting for her life in intensive care. Vera is shocked to see that Stuart is a shadow of the man she knew 20 years before and, when her investigation uncovers unpleasant revelations about his personal life, she is faced with some long-buried memories of her own.
- 05
Vera investigates the case of a murdered social worked named Jenny Lister, who was universally considered to have been principled and popular. However, in an overworked and understaffed social work system, a notorious case involving the death of a child seems to hold the key to solving the killing. As Vera pursues the truth, she discovers the real secret at the heart of Jenny's death - and the killer who will stop at nothing to keep it hidden.
- 06
DCI Vera Stanhope investigates the murder of 29-year-old Niall Culham. With those closest to Niall intent upon obscuring the truth, it is not until the body of a drug dealer is found washed up on a Northumberland beach that the dreadful truth begins to emerge about Niall's past. While coping with revelations from her own past, Vera sifts through evidence of the grief, love, and addiction that characterised Niall's life and deduces that his murderer acted through selfless and unrequited love.
- 07
DCI Vera Stanhope investigates the mysterious death of businessman John Shearwood, found floating in the waters under the Gateshead Millennium Bridge. Supposedly on a golf trip to Ireland, wife Stella and brother Luke are baffled to discover John has been working as an informant for Revenue and Customs. But why spy on your own firm?
- 08
After two young people are killed in the same way - placed in water and surrounded by flowers - DCI Vera Stanhope knows that she must catch the murderer before they strike again. Aided by her team, especially her trusted right-hand man DS Joe Ashworth, she unpicks the complex and dysfunctional relationships amongst a group of bird-watching friends. As the friends' loyalty turns to betrayal, Vera finds that a small act of teenage blackmail and an illicit affair may have driven someone to kill.
- 09
DCI Vera Stanhope and DS Joe Ashworth investigate a suspicious death in an army barracks. Although the scene has been made to look like a suicide, Vera quickly establishes that Staff Sgt "Dev" Deverson was murdered. Sensing a connection to a soldier named Ollie who was killed in Afghanistan, Vera interviews Dev's loyal comrades and Ollie's grieving family, exposing a deeply concealed trauma at the heart of the crime.
- 10
DCI Stanhope delves into the tangled past of extreme sports fanatic, Gideon Frane, when he plunges from a Northumberland cliff top in a ball of flames. An anonymous letter spelling ‘Burn in Hell' and a scan of files reveal a litany of stalking complaints and intimidation against an ex-girlfriend, Izzy Rawlins. As a former head boy, Headmistress Vivienne Ripman remembers Gideon as leader of a gang of ‘golden lads and girls'. But ex-girlfriend Manda Adelaide went missing after an attempted suicide and best friend Jamie Levinson has long since succumbed to drug addiction. Supported by DC Shepherd and the newly appointed DC Edwards, Vera and the team must track down Gideon's gang to uncover a lifetime of bullying and an unexpected story of tested loyalties and rough justice.
- 11
DCI Vera Stanhope investigates the murder of a promising journalism student, who falls to his death under suspicious circumstances. With no eyewitnesses and no immediate leads, Vera turns to friends and family to glean all she can about Jamie, and to discover who might have wanted him dead. Could his investigative journalism be responsible for making serious enemies?
- 12
When respected surgeon, Dan Marsden, is shot dead days before his retirement and his teen daughters, Mira and Karen, are abducted, DCI Stanhope and the team face a race against time to track down the killer and save the sisters. Orphaned by a missile attack in Baghdad, a young girl being pulled from the rubble of her building became an iconic image of the Iraq conflict. Brought to Britain for treatment, little Mira was adopted by Dan and his dutiful wife, Laura, under the watchful eye of a family friend. Joined by new addition, DC Barry Kelman, it's not long before the case takes a violent and unexpected turn striking at the heart of Vera and her team.
- 13
Vera investigates a fatal stabbing outside a busy Newcastle nightclub. Identifying the victim as ex-Met Officer, John Warnock, the only clues are an empty flat and an unregistered car with six thousand pounds hidden in the boot. With the help of her loyal team, they track John's next of kin to a local farm run by his sister, Maggie. Having recently returned to Newcastle, John had been working at Finches, a large brewery run by Maggie's fiancé, Sam Harper. Lisa Strachan, John's childhood sweetheart, admits to rekindling their affair in recent months. Delving deeper into John's world, Vera uncovers a secret relationship with Sam's daughter, Eva and an under-hand plot to spy on the brewery for a multi-national company eager to buy out the family business. But lawyer Katrina Lennox insists he was called off the case months ago. So why did he continue to spy on Sam Harper?
- 14
Joe's daughter is a witness to the death of a pensioner, seemingly stabbed, on a rush hour train she and her father were travelling on. Her seemingly quiet life turns out to be anything but as Vera's investigation begins to unravel a tangled web of lies and deceit. An old friend of Vera's father appears to hold the key to the entire mystery, which involves unraveling a murder committed thirty years previously, a rape which resulted in a child whose identity has been shrouded in mystery, and an affair which nobody suspected would ever be likely to have taken place. Vera realises that the answer may lie in events which have started to repeat themselves.
- 15
When a young property developer dies on a beach in Whitley Bay, Vera's investigation begins to tread on many toes. It appears that the victim was not only having a secret relationship with his estranged sister, but that he had confronted a local arcade owner, whose son had died at his house many years before, having slipped from a flat roof in a supposed 'burglary'. However, a scam involving the family's rental business may hold the key to the motive behind the victim's death. But in order to place all of the pieces of the puzzle together, Vera has to reveal some long buried - and heartbreaking - secrets, leading to a shock revelation which points the team firmly in the direction of the real killer.
- 16
With Joe now promoted, Vera and her new sergeant, DS Aiden Healy, investigate a fatal explosion at a caravan park which killed Deena Viner, sister of the park's owner, Jim. The mystery deepens when Vera and Aiden discover that Deena was killed and then placed in the caravan before it blew up.
- 17
Vera must uncover a life of secrets and lies when Owen Thorne, a well-loved family man, plummets to his death from a multi-storey car park.
- 18
The body of a young man is discovered face down in a river by Thrunton Woods, bludgeoned to death. But with no ID on the body, tracing the victim's identity proves difficult for DCI Vera Stanhope and her team. Vera is forced to make headway with the only clues they have: a mourning ring worn around the young man's neck, needle marks on the body, and a drugs wrap with a distinctive stamp - 'Dark Angel'.
- 19
DCI Vera Stanhope investigates the brutal murder of young physiotherapist, Lizzie Faulkner, gunned down at a luxury country retreat. For DS Joe Ashworth, the case brings him face to face with a part of his past he would rather forget. Local man, Robert Doran, was in the area shooting badgers at the time but denies any part in the killing, despite having a connection to Lizzie. In a story of betrayal, guilt and the need for atonement, Vera must move quickly to avoid another tragedy while Joe finally makes amends with the demons from his own past.
- 20
Teenagers Sassi and Louis Barnes discover Shane Thurgood, dead from a single gunshot wound on the moors of the Northumberland countryside. An abandoned truck is found burnt out a mile away, containing the remains of a deer. DS Joe Ashworth is convinced this is a poacher's war gone wrong but for DCI Vera Stanhope, the truth is never that straightforward.
- 21
DCI Stanhope and DS Healy investigate the death of an unidentified man dredged up from a slurry pit on a remote Northumberland farm.Owner Danny Pryor and his right hand man Milosh Beqiri are forced to admit they use a number of illegal Serbian workers. A faded tattoo identifies the slurry man as Jack Reeves, a young man from the local travelling community. But what is his connection to the Serbians and Pryor Farm? Aided by her trusted team, DC Whelan and DC Lockhart, Vera must expose the tragic truth at the heart of Pryor Farm before it's too late.
- 22
DCI Vera Stanhope investigates the mysterious murder of a fifty six year old grandmother, discovered by a young girl on the wild and desolate Northumberland moors. The body is swiftly identified as Anne-Marie Richards, recently returned from Scotland to reconcile with her two daughters, Nicole McKendrick and Christine Withers. A 999 call placed by Anne-Marie on the night of the murder, coupled with the disturbed state of her cottage, suggests a possible abduction by someone she knew.
- 23
A mysterious double murder in a remote country home is investigated by Vera and her team. The strange circumstances circulating around the hit-and-run incident and brutal stabbing of a man inside the home, leads to team to build a picture to what really happened the night before.
- 24
DCI Vera Stanhope is drawn into a suspicious death on Ternstone, a remote and inaccessible island off the coast of Northumberland, home only to numerous species of birds and the rangers who observe them. The last thing anyone expected to see was a body, cruelly washed up on the shore.
- 25
The discovery of skeletal remains in Hollowthorp Woods leads to Vera re-opening the case of a seventeen-year-old school girl, Carrie Telling, who went missing some thirty years earlier. Found with the body's remains were a camera, a company credit card, and a telephone number for an abortion clinic. When another murder occurs, it becomes apparent to Vera that the killer is somebody who had something to hide thirty years ago, and is still prepared to kill to ensure their secret stays safe.
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He's smart, he's good looking, and he's got a great sense of humor.
