Sunday 8 May 2011

Vera and Lewis


Vera, starring Brenda Blethyn as Vera Stanhope, had a good second outing with Telling Tales, based on a first rate novel by Ann Cleeves.The screenplay was by Paul Rutman.

This was a story where a good deal of focus was on the characters of Vera and, to some extent, her relationships with her sidekick and members of her team. It's interesting to compare and contrast this enjoyable new series with an old favourite. I gather, to my amazement, that we have now had no fewer than five series of Lewis, of course following countless episodes of Inspector Morse. And the latest series ended with a highly enjoyable episdoe, The Gift of Promise.

The story was about the murder of a woman who runs a scheme to promote the cause of gifted children, and as ever the body count quickly mounted. But what I liked most was the way the story was set up. Usually in Lewis, there is a crime right at the start, but this time a whole range of seemingly unconnected and sometimes rather odd incidents occurred. All very tantalising, and it reminded me of the early days of Taggart, when Glenn Chandler came up with some wonderfully convoluted story-lines. Here, the mysterious threads were gradually woven together - an excellent example of screenwriting and possibly my favourite Lewis so far.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Martin - Glad to hear that you're enjoying Vera. I look forward to seeing it when I can get my hands on some episodes here.

anthony stemke said...

You just reminded me of John Thaw in "Inspector Morse" with that old Jaguar he had, and the classical music he loved, and enjoying a beer in a pub at lunchtime.
I wish they would show those dramas again, I enjoyed them.
Thanks for reminding me.

Martin Edwards said...

Margot, I'm sure you won't have too long to wait - hope you enjoy them as I do.
Greetings Anthony, I am a Morse fan too.