Vera and Joe have some reacquainting to do.
It’s all change on the new series of Vera which sees the detective, played by Brenda Blethyn, reunited with a face from the past.
David Leon returns as beloved Joe Ashworth – but he’s had a promotion and is now a Detective Inspector who’s tasked with checking Vera and her team are up to standards.
But he’s spent some time with the MET in London, and as a result is somewhat shocked to see how behind-the-times Vera’s team is, even though they get the crime solved.
RadioTimes.com recently caught up with Leon, who spoke about how the dynamics between Vera and Joe operate, and he hinted that the beloved detective’s time in the force may be coming to an end, so changes have to be made.
He said: “It’s not just that Joe’s evolved and grown, she has also, and I think they find themselves in very different stages of life. His kids are pretty much grown up at this point, she’s perhaps coming to the end of her time in the police force, and there’s a natural sense of there being a rebalancing.
“That reminds me very much of what it’s like as a child when you leave home for a period of time and then come back and your parents have to change that perception of how they see you. So he has to regain and earn her trust again, but there’s a level of, ‘you can’t pull the wool over my eyes because I’ve been there, seen it and done it’.”
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Regardless of this dancing around each other that happens as they learn where they stand with each other, Vera does respect Joe, and always has done.
Leon continued: “He just wants to be treated with the level of respect.
“I think that he feels that he should but I think because of the nature of their relationship, which is very sort of maternal, you know, it’s very sort of mother-son, to some extent, there’s a level of deep respect that I think she shows him that I think she doesn’t often show to most of the characters she comes into contact with.
“And I think he really appreciates that.”
Vera season 13 continues at 8pm on Sunday 14th January 2024. Previous episodes are available to watch on ITVX while seasons are also available on BritBox – you can sign up for a 7-day free BritBox trial here.
You can also purchase instalments from any series on Amazon Prime Video. You can buy the first of Ann Cleeves’s Vera novels here.
To find out what else is on, check out our TV Guide and Streaming Guide or visit our dedicated Drama hub.
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