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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 998 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".

  • Hidden Depths
    7.3/10998 votes
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    #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

  • The Deer Hunters
    7.4/10577 votes
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    #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

  • Sandancers
    7.6/10618 votes
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    #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

  • Changing Tides
    7.6/10655 votes
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    #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

  • The Moth Catcher
    7.6/101,687 votes
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    #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

  • Cuckoo
    7.6/10552 votes
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    #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

  • Parent Not Expected
    7.6/10518 votes
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    #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

  • Telling Tales
    7.7/10810 votes
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    #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

  • The Crow Trap
    7.7/10747 votes
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    #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

  • The Sea Glass
    7.7/10791 votes
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    #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

  • Natural Selection
    7.7/101,194 votes
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    #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

  • Darkwater
    7.7/10545 votes
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    #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

  • Blood Will Tell
    7.7/10548 votes
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    #13 - 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

  • Castles in the Air
    7.8/10658 votes
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    #14 - 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

  • Protected
    7.8/10605 votes
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    #15 - 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

  • Shadows in the Sky
    7.8/10993 votes
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    #16 - Shadows in the Sky

    Season 5 Episode 4 - Aired 4/26/2015

    A dock worker plunges from the roof of a multistory car park whilst picking up daughter from her school prom and everything points to foul play.

    Director: William Sinclair

    Writer: Martha Hillier

  • Black Ice
    7.8/10570 votes
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    #17 - 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

  • The Escape Turn
    7.8/10486 votes
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    #18 - 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

  • Tyger Tyger
    7.8/10527 votes
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    #19 - 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

  • For the Grace of God
    7.8/10557 votes
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    #20 - 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

  • Salt & Vinegar
    7.8/10335 votes
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    #21 - 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

  • The Ghost Position
    7.9/10743 votes
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    #22 - 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

  • A Certain Samaritan
    7.9/10632 votes
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    #23 - 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

  • Poster Child
    7.9/10619 votes
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    #24 - 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

  • Prodigal Son
    7.9/10613 votes
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    #25 - 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