Vera returns to TV screens later this month.

Award-winning actress, Brenda Blethyn, will be donning her iconic mac and hat to play the unorthodox but brilliantly perceptive Detective Chief Inspector Vera Stanhope, in six new feature-length episodes set against the backdrop of the North East, including Corbridge in Northumberland.

The show will be back on January 15 and 22, where it will show two episodes from series 11.

It will then be followed by four episodes from series 12, which will be airing on January 29 and February 5, 12 and 19.

Kenny Doughty will be returning as Detective Sergeant Aiden Healy, a strong and reliable partner to DCI Stanhope. As well as Jon Morrison who plays DC Kenny Lockhart, Riley Jones who plays DC Mark Edwards and Ibinabo Jack as DC Jacqueline Williams.

Paul Kaye is also returning to three of the new episodes as Pathologist Dr Malcolm Donahue while Sarah Kameela Impey joins the production from the episode entitled For the Grace of God as Pathologist Dr Paula Bennett.

The six self-contained crime stories have once again been inspired by the best-selling novels and characters created by acclaimed crime writer Ann Cleeves, who received the Diamond Dagger Award at the Crime Writer’s Association in 2017 for a lifetime achievement for sustained excellence.