This weekend the 10th series of Vera comes to an end and we’re not sure we’re ready.
If you want to avoid spoilers for Vera, stop reading now.
In the third episode of the series, Dirty, Vera (Brenda Blethyn) investigated the death of Luke Sumner (Adam Turns), whose body was found in his flat in Newcastle. Pathology concluded that Luke was left for dead hours before he finally died.
Vera pieced together Luke’s final hours but she struggled to find out much about him. He worked long hours for a commercial cleaning company and had cut ties with all his friends and family. His father Seth had been murdered by a petty burglar years earlier.
The investigation focused on Luke’s employers when Vera discovered he’d left work in a rage the day he died. She uncovered claims of workplace intimidation and harassment, and established a pattern of violence and self-loathing recurring throughout Luke’s life before catching his killer.
The synopsis for episode 4 is:
When wealthy betting shop magnate Alun Wilmott is shot and killed after returning home early amid a terrifying home invasion, it’s assumed that he is the unlucky victim of a burglary gone wrong.
The culprits abscond with a huge amount of cash from Alun’s personal safe, leaving his wife and daughter (Louise and Jess Wilmott) traumatised in their wake. Vera suspects and inside job and immediately targets the affluent neighbourhood’s shady head of private security, Ciaran Duggan, whose history of violent crime calls his reformed character into question.
As Vera’s team delve deeper into Alun’s life, she discovers a paranoid and possessive man whose family and business interests were being targeted on all sides. Wilmott’s passion project, a greyhound racing stadium where his empire first began, is a drain on company funds in the age of online gambling.
Ruthless, cost-cutting business policies made enemies out of disgruntled gamblers and over-worked bookmakers alike. The sharks were circling, calling for Alun to be sacked as CEO. But as Vera soon discovers, the truth behind Alun’s tragic death may be far more insidious and meticulously planned than first appears.
Vera continues at 8pm Sunday on ITV. Preview the episode with our gallery below:
