On reflection, staying up to watch a second episode of ITV’s Vera (based on the Vera Stanhope novels by Ann Cleeves) was not a particularly bright move. Jane had found a recently broadcast episode, which we enjoyed, but we then spotted another that was only available for another two days. Unfortunately they have chosen the feature length format and I drifted off somewhere past the half way point of the 90 minute drama, only waking to see the climax, so I am still rather befuddled about how the plot fitted together.

Never mind. It is good to see the character back on the screens and these episodes, now moving beyond the books into stories written for TV, are keeping up to the standards of the first series. I still think the portrayal makes her a little too well-dressed; in the novels she looks rather shabby and benefits from being underestimated. Worth watching though for fans of police-led detective fiction.