Brenda Blethyn returned as Vera in the 10th series of the long-running ITV crime drama on Sunday night.
If you want to avoid spoilers for Vera, stop reading now.
In the first episode Vera investigated the death of self-styled entrepreneur Freddie Gill (Jonathan Spencer), whose body was found by bailiffs attempting to repossess his house.
Vera discovered that Freddie was estranged from his wife Jade (Charlotte Pyke) and son Riley Gill (Josh Barrow). She also found out that Jade’s late father Arthur had been secretly keeping in touch with Freddie.
Investing his turbulent professional life and looking deeper into his family, Vera and her team used all of their detective skills to find the culprit.
The series continues on Sunday and the synopsis for episode 2 is:
The body of 19-year-old apprentice electrician Dennis Bayliss is discovered, washed up on the shore of a North Northumberland rural estate. DCI Vera Stanhope (Brenda Blethyn) is called to investigate and soon encounters the Walken family, who run a booming salmon farm off the coast of their land.
Dennis turns out to be the estranged son of Steph and Rob Bayliss who are left crippled by his death, having lost him once already when he abandoned them to seek out his biological father; Thomas Walken!
Vera discovers tensions and fallouts have been a feature of Dennis’ life since a DNA home-test kit – a gift from his now ex-girlfriend, Phoebe – revealed the secret about his paternity, dropping a genealogical bombshell between the two families.
It appears Dennis was caught in a downward emotional spiral, alienating his parents and friends and apparently turning to dealing prescription drugs to supplement his income. But Vera has to look closer at the strained relationships of Dennis’ two families in order to find the truth about his death.
Vera continues at 8.10pm Sunday on ITV. Preview it with our gallery below:
