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The Worst Episodes of Vera

Every episode of Vera ranked from worst to best. Explore the Worst Episodes of Vera!

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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 blackmail. Vera is obsessive about her work and faces the

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Worst Episode
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    Vera Season 1 Episode 1 - Hidden Depths
    7.0/10(10 votes)

    #1 - Hidden Depths

    S1:E1

    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

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  2. Vera Season 1 Episode 2 - Telling Tales
    7.0/10(7 votes)

    #2 - Telling Tales

    S1:E2

    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

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  3. Vera Season 8 Episode 3 - Home
    7.2/10(5 votes)

    #3 - Home

    S8:E3

    Quiet life in suburbia takes a dark turn when a woman is discovered murdered, found lying dead in her back garden. When DCI Vera Stanhope discovers that the neighbours aren’t all that they seem, buried secrets must be unearthed in order to catch the killer.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  4. Vera Season 11 Episode 3 - Tyger Tyger
    7.2/10(5 votes)

    #4 - Tyger Tyger

    S11:E3

    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

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  5. Vera Season 1 Episode 3 - The Crow Trap
    7.3/10(6 votes)

    #5 - The Crow Trap

    S1:E3

    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

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  6. Vera Season 9 Episode 2 - Cuckoo
    7.3/10(3 votes)

    #6 - Cuckoo

    S9:E2

    Vera must get to the bottom of why a teenage boy is found murdered far away from his home in a coastal town.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  7. Vera Season 1 Episode 4 - Little Lazarus
    7.4/10(5 votes)

    #7 - Little Lazarus

    S1:E4

    Last in the series of the detective drama based on the novels by Ann Cleeves. DI Vera Stanhope rescues a young boy from a freezing pond after he escapes from a violent attack which left his mother dead. As Vera and her team investigate what happened to the child, they unravel a web of deadly secrets and discover a murderous sequence of events set in motion by power, money and a mother's love. Although she is usually awkward and uninterested around children, Vera finds a kindred spirit in the boy, and begins to realise that the key to the investigation may lie hidden in his memory.

    Director:Paul Whittington
    Writer:Paul Rutman

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  8. Vera Season 9 Episode 3 - Cold River
    7.5/10(6 votes)

    #8 - Cold River

    S9:E3

    A beauty empire is shaken to the ground when one of three sisters is found dead in the River Tyne. DCI Vera Stanthorpe investigates.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  9. Vera Season 11 Episode 4 - As the Crow Flies
    7.5/10(6 votes)

    #9 - As the Crow Flies

    S11:E4

    Primary school teacher Lizzy Swann is found dead at the bottom of a cliffside coastal walkway, but what appears at first to be a terrible accident, quickly becomes a murder investigation as Vera discovers evidence the body has been tampered with. Interviews with those who knew Lizzy paint a troubling picture of a guarded and paranoid woman who seemed to be burning bridges with friends and family alike in the days leading up to her death.

    Director:Waris Islam
    Writer:Sally Abbott

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  10. Vera Season 3 Episode 1 - Castles in the Air
    7.6/10(5 votes)

    #10 - Castles in the Air

    S3:E1

    DCI Vera Stanhope investigates the brutal murder of a young physiotherapist gunned down at a luxury country retreat.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  11. Vera Season 4 Episode 3 - The Deer Hunters
    7.6/10(5 votes)

    #11 - The Deer Hunters

    S4:E3

    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

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  12. Vera Season 5 Episode 3 - Muddy Waters
    7.6/10(5 votes)

    #12 - Muddy Waters

    S5:E3

    Vera investigates the death of an unidentified man dredged up from a slurry pit on a remote Northumberland farm.

    Director:Stewart Svaasand
    Writer:Glen Laker

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  13. Vera Season 10 Episode 2 - Parent Not Expected
    7.6/10(5 votes)

    #13 - Parent Not Expected

    S10:E2

    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

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  14. Vera Season 6 Episode 3 - The Moth Catcher
    7.7/10(3 votes)

    #14 - The Moth Catcher

    S6:E3

    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

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  15. Vera Season 8 Episode 1 - Blood and Bone
    7.7/10(6 votes)

    #15 - Blood and Bone

    S8:E1

    DCI Vera Stanhope is called to a chilling murder scene when the charred remains of a body are discovered in an abattoir incinerator. With limited forensic evidence, she is disturbed to identify the body as DC Harry Fenton, a respected police officer from the Northumberland & City Fraud Unit.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  16. Vera Season 11 Episode 1 - Witness
    7.7/10(3 votes)

    #16 - Witness

    S11:E1

    DCI Vera Stanhope must unravel the mystery when well-respected local builder and family man Jim Tullman is found beaten to death on the steps of the Collingwood Monument the day before he was due to testify in court as the key witness in a violent assault case.

    Director:Paul Gay
    Writer:Paul Logue

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  17. Vera Season 2 Episode 3 - A Certain Samaritan
    7.8/10(5 votes)

    #17 - A Certain Samaritan

    S2:E3

    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

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  18. Vera Season 3 Episode 2 - Poster Child
    7.8/10(5 votes)

    #18 - Poster Child

    S3:E2

    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:Unknown

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  19. Vera Season 4 Episode 1 - On Harbour Street
    7.8/10(5 votes)

    #19 - On Harbour Street

    S4:E1

    Investigating a mysterious death, DCI Vera Stanhope finds herself in a quiet coastal town with clues that keep revolving around one street.

    Director:Thaddeus O'Sullivan
    Writer:Paul Rutman

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  20. Vera Season 5 Episode 1 - Changing Tides
    7.8/10(5 votes)

    #20 - Changing Tides

    S5:E1

    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

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  21. Vera Season 7 Episode 1 - Natural Selection
    7.8/10(5 votes)

    #21 - Natural Selection

    S7:E1

    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

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  22. Vera Season 8 Episode 2 - Black Ice
    7.8/10(6 votes)

    #22 - Black Ice

    S8:E2

    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:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  23. Vera Season 3 Episode 4 - Prodigal Son
    8.0/10(5 votes)

    #23 - Prodigal Son

    S3:E4

    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

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  24. Vera Season 4 Episode 2 - Protected
    8.0/10(5 votes)

    #24 - Protected

    S4:E2

    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:Unknown

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  25. Vera Season 4 Episode 4 - Death of a Family Man
    8.0/10(5 votes)

    #25 - Death of a Family Man

    S4:E4

    DCI Vera Stanhope investigates the mysterious death of a businessman found floating in the water under the Gateshead Millennium Bridge.

    Director:David Richards
    Writer:Martha Hillier

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Worst Episodes Summary

"Hidden Depths" is the worst rated episode of "Vera". It scored 7/10 based on 10 votes. Directed by Adrian Shergold and written by Paul Rutman, it aired on 5/1/2011. This episode scored 0.0 points lower than the second lowest rated, "Telling Tales".