The final series of Vera will be airing on ITV very soon, with it wrapping up Brenda Blethyn's time playing the detective chief inspector.

Based on the Vera Stanhope series of novels by Ann Cleeves, the show began all the way back in 2011 and is finishing with its 14th season.

The final two episodes, entitled Inside and The Dark Wives, will include the usual complicated murder mysteries while also focusing on Vera's personal life.

A synopsis on the Radio Times reads: "In the first episode, DCI Vera Stanhope is called to the banks of the Tyne where the body of a young man has been discovered by some anglers.

"A tangled web of a broken relationship, secret love, grudges, regret and fraud begins to emerge – has our former inmate been served cold justice, or does his death run deeper?

"The final episode brings Vera back to a familiar place when a body is found at the foot of legendary local stones The Dark Wives – with memories of childhood in the background, Vera must work hard to uncover the mystery of why a bright young student would be violently attacked and left so far from home.

"This poignant episode weaves together past and present and makes for a compelling and emotional farewell."

Discussing filming the final scene of Vera, Blethyn told the Radio Times: "It was very appropriate that the last day of filming was scheduled to take place in the police incident room where so much of the drama has happened.

"I think our producer Will Nicholson contrived that. (Incidentally, that is not where the final scene of the episode takes place.) You could hear a pin drop when we were filming. Then when I heard, 'That’s a wrap.' I was emotional. As, indeed, Vera would have been."

She continued: "There were a lot of people behind the cameras, and at the end I thanked everybody. I said, 'We’re all as important as one another.' I might be the one playing the title character, but it’s only an ingredient in a great big pot. And all of the ingredients are necessary.

"Everyone contributes to it. And it’s the sum of all of those parts that made Vera a success. And Vera will, of course, continue to crack crime in Ann Cleeves’s books - and there will be 56 episodes available to watch on TV repeats."

ITV Vera Series 14 full cast list

  • Brenda Blethyn as DCI Vera Stanhope
  • David Leon as DI Joe Ashworth
  • Jon Morrison as DC Kenny Lockhart
  • Riley Jones as DC Mark Edwards
  • Shobna Gulati as Chief Superintendent Khalon
  • Sarah Kameela Impey as Dr Paula Bennett
  • Rhiannon Clements as DC Steph Duncan
  • Kevin Whately as Gary Creelan
  • William Houston as Lucas Corbridge
  • Cathy Tyson as Kath Olivier
  • Clinton Blake as Greg Wakeley

  • Simon Lenagan as Richard Rowlins
  • Amanda Root as Deena Corbridge
  • Joshua Sher as Dylan Rowlins
  • Victoria Elliott as Imogen Langworth
  • Chelsea Halfpenny as Kimberley Martin
  • Michelle Holmes as Erika Rowlins
  • Yazmin Kayani as Justine Aguta
  • George Beach as Theo Patterdale
  • Alexandra Hannant as Jessie Ashworth
  • Jacoba Williams as Gwen Cobden
  • Bryan Moriarty as Zachary Martin

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When will Vera's final series be on TV?

The first episode of Vera's final series will air from 8pm to 10pm on Wednesday, January 1.

The second will follow at the same timeslot on the following day (Thursday, January 2).

After that, the episodes will be available to watch on ITVX.