Second series of Vera goes into production
2nd August 2011
New episodes of ITV’s crime thriller VERA starring Brenda Blethyn OBE have gone into production in the North East. Guest stars Julie Graham (Survivors, William & Mary), Ron Cook (Little Dorrit, The Diary of Anne Frank), Steven Hartley (Doctors, The Bill) and Nina Sosanya (Silk, Five Days) join Brenda in The Ghost Position, the first of four self contained films.
DCI Vera Stanhope (Brenda Blethyn) is reunited, under tragic circumstances, with her first ever Sergeant, Stuart Macken (Steven Hartley). When his house is petrol bombed, Stuart is left badly burned and his 18 year old daughter, Stella (Jessica Barden), is fighting for her life in intensive care. Vera is shocked to see that Stuart is a shadow of the man she knew twenty years before.
Vera, battling through grief for her former colleague and friend, is determined to track down the assailant and discover why someone would attempt to kill Stuart and Stella.
With Stella in a coma, Vera and her trusted sidekick, DC Joe Ashworth (David Leon), pick their way through her former Sergeant’s recent history, including the breakdown of his marriage to Marianne (Julie Graham), now happily in a relationship with Brian Gower (Ron Cook), and his clandestine encounters with married colleague, Assistant Chief Constable Rachel Waite (Nina Sosanya).
Soon the team are hot on the trail of a suspect, but a dramatic discovery turns the case on its head, revealing the secret at the heart of these catastrophic events.
The Ghost Position also stars Wunmi Mosaku as DC Holly, Jon Morrison as DC Kenny, Paul Ritter as pathologist Billy Cartwright, Rose Leslie as Lena Mayhew and Emily Woof as Janice.
VERA has been re-commissioned by Director of Drama Commissioning Laura Mackie and Sally Haynes, Controller of Drama Commissioning, and is executive produced by Kate Bartlett, Creative Director - Drama ITVS and Kate Lewis. Elaine Collins is the producer and Peter Hoar will direct.
The Ghost Position is an original script by Paul Rutman who adapted Hidden Depths and Telling Tales from the novels by Ann Cleeves for the first series.