Take a middle-aged, dowdily made-up detective M'am played superbly by Brenda Blethyn, set it up North where Geordie is the lingua franca, add in some nice back stories about her colleagues and personal life and you have 'Vera', ITV's latest top-cop-one-stop Sunday evening doorstopper. Criticised for being slow-moving, 'thetvreviewguy' quite likes the sedate pace interjected with the odd moments of action; no ultra-violence here or CSI-style trickery but the simple devices of plot and character. The extra presence in the series is the beauty and isolation of the North-East; Newcastle and Gateshead look great while the local countryside gets a full showcasing. Now 'thetvreviewguy' enjoys his crime fiction and Vera hits a lot of 'like' buttons; credible characterisation, believable plotting and some good use of humour. While the Scandinavian detective with his/her earnest dourness maybe the stock copper du jour, there's always room for a throwback to the more traditional poh-lease i.e. old fashioned is welcome in going against the grain in this instance. There are very few absolute truths in life; one of them is probably that detective fiction will always be popular as we like to uncover the who, what, why, wheres and hows behind any good story. 'Vera' should get a good run and Brenda Blethyn is already well on the way to becoming a British, gulp, 'National Treasure'.
No comments:
Post a Comment