What time is Vera on TV?

What can we expect?

A woman flees a funeral in tears, jumps into her car and heads off into the wilds of Northumberland. But it’s not long before she’s deliberately forced off a lonely country road by another vehicle. She’s gravely injured in the crash and isn’t expected to survive.

It’s another knotty case for formidable Detective Chief Inspector Vera Stanhope (Brenda Blethyn) and gives her ample scope to do what she does best: look at people narrowly, as if she’s peering into their very souls. Or maybe she’s simply wondering where her next bacon sandwich is coming from.

Even by Vera’s standards this is a complex inquiry bubbling with all kinds of emotions – anger, jealousy, guilt – and she must first get to know the victim, a cab driver with a complicated romantic history who seems to be both loved and hated in equal measure by those who knew her.

Review by Alison Graham

Who is in the cast?

Brenda Blethyn returns in the lead role, with support from Kenny Doughty, Jon Morrison and Sonya Cassidy. Kingsley Ben-Adir, whose character, Dr Marcus Sumner, had been absent last season, returns, while Broadchurch star Carolyn Pickles joins the cast as Rita, the wife of DI Harry Fenton. You can see more details about the cast and characters here.

How long will the series run for?

Like all of the previous series, it will be four episodes long.