7.3/101,010 votesLoading...#1 - Hidden Depths
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 5/1/2011
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 Sgt 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.
Director: Adrian Shergold
Writer: Paul Rutman
7.4/10580 votesLoading...#2 - The Deer Hunters
Season 4 Episode 3 - Aired 5/11/2014
When a suspected poacher is found dead from a gunshot wound, Vera must unearth the real truth behind his return to the Northumberland moors.
Director: William Sinclair
Writer: Steve Coombes
7.6/10623 votesLoading...#3 - Sandancers
Season 2 Episode 4 - Aired 6/3/2012
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.
Director: Edward Bazalgette
Writer: Paul Rutman
7.6/10662 votesLoading...#4 - Changing Tides
Season 5 Episode 1 - Aired 4/5/2015
Vera takes a look into a suspicious fire that rips through a holiday park on the Northumberland coast. Three cabins are destroyed and the body of a woman is discovered inside inside one of them.
Director: Marek Losey
Writer: Martha Hillier
7.6/101,693 votesLoading...#5 - The Moth Catcher
Season 6 Episode 3 - Aired 2/14/2016
DCI Stanhope and her team, including new recruit DC Hicham Cherradi, travel to a remote country house when the woman looking after it is killed.
Director: Jamie Childs
Writer: Paul Matthew Thompson
7.6/10555 votesLoading...#6 - Cuckoo
Season 9 Episode 2 - Aired 1/20/2019
Vera must get to the bottom of why a teenage boy is found murdered far away from his home in a coastal town.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
7.6/10524 votesLoading...#7 - Parent Not Expected
Season 10 Episode 2 - Aired 1/19/2020
DCI Vera Stanhope must unravel a tangled web of deceit between two wildly different families when the body of a teenage boy is discovered floating near a Northumberland salmon farm.
Director: Rob Evans
Writer: Colette Kane
7.7/10818 votesLoading...#8 - Telling Tales
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 5/8/2011
After Jeanie 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?
Director: Peter Hoar
Writer: Paul Rutman
7.7/10754 votesLoading...#9 - The Crow Trap
Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 5/15/2011
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.
Director: Farren Blackburn
Writer: Paul Rutman
7.7/10800 votesLoading...#10 - The Sea Glass
Season 6 Episode 4 - Aired 2/21/2016
A fisherman's body is found tangled up in a North Sea trawler's net. Vera and her team investigate with the help of the local harbourmaster
Director: Paul Gay
Writer: Martha Hillier
7.7/101,203 votesLoading...#11 - Natural Selection
Season 7 Episode 1 - Aired 3/19/2017
CI 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.
Director: Jamie Childs
Writer: Helen Jenkins
7.7/10549 votesLoading...#12 - Darkwater
Season 8 Episode 4 - Aired 1/28/2018
Vera is confronted with a tragic mystery when the dead body of teenager Ethan Dewley is found floating in a reservoir in a remote rural town, DCI Vera Stanhope must scrutinise the fractured relationships of the surrounding community to find his killer.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
7.8/10663 votesLoading...#13 - Castles in the Air
Season 3 Episode 1 - Aired 8/25/2013
DCI Vera Stanhope investigates the brutal murder of a young physiotherapist gunned down at a luxury country retreat.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
7.8/10609 votesLoading...#14 - Protected
Season 4 Episode 2 - Aired 5/4/2014
Vera unearths a 30-year-old mystery when the son of a prominent local family is found brutally murdered on the sands of a seaside resort.
Director: Daikin Marsh
Writer: N/A
7.8/10573 votesLoading...#15 - Black Ice
Season 8 Episode 2 - Aired 1/14/2018
When a seemingly beloved resident of a coastal community is fatally driven off the road, DCI Vera digs up the victim's past in the hope of unmasking the killer.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
7.8/10554 votesLoading...#16 - Blood Will Tell
Season 10 Episode 1 - Aired 1/12/2020
DCI Vera Stanhope must unravel the circumstances of self-styled entrepreneur Freddie Gill's death when his body is found by bailiffs, attempting to repossess his house.
Director: Paul Gay
Writer: Paul Logue
7.8/10495 votesLoading...#17 - The Escape Turn
Season 10 Episode 4 - Aired 2/2/2020
Wealthy betting shop tycoon Alun Wilmott is shot and killed during a home invasion, leaving his wife and daughter traumatized - with large amounts of cash missing from his personal safe, it is assumed he is the unlucky victim of a burglary.
Director: Carolina Giammetta
Writer: Paul Matthew Thompson
7.8/10533 votesLoading...#18 - Tyger Tyger
Season 11 Episode 3 - Aired 1/9/2022
When security foreman Gary Mallon is fatally wounded during a robbery at a Blyth container port the evidence points to an audacious heist that went awry. Vera begins to suspect an inside job. But the investigation takes an unexpected turn when Gary’s ex-wife contacts police with the news that their 13-year-old son is missing. Gary Mallon was acting under duress - the victim of a tiger kidnapping. His son was being held as collateral - but where is he now? In order to rescue the missing boy, Vera first needs to work out who was behind the robbery. Further complications ensue when she finds herself forced to collaborate with an NCA Officer who is working on a covert surveillance operation with links to organised crime. As Vera closes in on the kidnappers a misstep in the investigation leads to tragic repercussions, and she finds herself taken off the case.
Director: Paul Gay
Writer: Paul Matthew Thompson
7.8/10560 votesLoading...#19 - For the Grace of God
Season 12 Episode 2 - Aired 2/5/2023
Vera attends to the body of an ex-soldier who ended up on the streets and finds that events in his past and the present made for a deadly future.
Director: Claire Winyard
Writer: Sally Abbott
7.8/10345 votesLoading...#20 - Salt & Vinegar
Season 13 Episode 3 - Aired 1/21/2024
DCI Vera Stanhope investigates when the body of the co-owner of a chip shop is found in his own freezer. A seemingly successful entrepreneur and dedicated family man, Vera uncovers secrets, lies and some unforgivable behaviour as she tries to unwrap the case. Once the investigation begins, it soon becomes apparent that our enigmatic entrepreneur has left behind debts, broken promises, ruined lives and seriously interfered in family business that was not his own. Who is responsible for this unsavoury chip shop assault and battery?
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
7.9/10753 votesLoading...#21 - The Ghost Position
Season 2 Episode 1 - Aired 4/22/2012
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.
Director: Peter Hoar
Writer: Paul Rutman
7.9/10639 votesLoading...#22 - A Certain Samaritan
Season 2 Episode 3 - Aired 5/20/2012
DCI Vera Stanhope investigates the murder of 29-year-old Niall Coulter. 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.
Director: Julian Holmes
Writer: Colin Teevan
7.9/10627 votesLoading...#23 - Poster Child
Season 3 Episode 2 - Aired 9/1/2013
DCI Vera Stanhope and her team must race against time to track down the killer of a respected surgeon and save his abducted teenage daughters.
Director: Paul Cotter
Writer: N/A
7.9/10622 votesLoading...#24 - Prodigal Son
Season 3 Episode 4 - Aired 9/15/2013
Vera and her team investigate the fatal stabbing of an ex-Met police officer outside a busy Newcastle nightclub.
Director: Thaddeus O'Sullivan
Writer: Marston Bloom
7.9/10666 votesLoading...#25 - On Harbour Street
Season 4 Episode 1 - Aired 4/27/2014
Investigating a mysterious death, DCI Vera Stanhope finds herself in a quiet coastal town with clues that keep revolving around one street.
Director: Thaddeus O'Sullivan
Writer: Paul Rutman
The Worst Episodes of Vera
Every episode of Vera ranked from worst to best. Explore the Worst Episodes of Vera!
A sharp detective with a messy life, DCI Vera Stanhope patrols her “patch” of northeast England, pursuing the truth in cases of murder, kidnapping, and...
Genres:CrimeDramaMystery
Network:ITV1
Worst Episodes Summary
"Hidden Depths" is the worst rated episode of "Vera". It scored 7.3/10 based on 1010 votes. Directed by Adrian Shergold and written by Paul Rutman, it aired on 5/1/2011. This episode scored 0.1 points lower than the second lowest rated, "The Deer Hunters".