History Series / Vera

* HiddenDepths: In "Dark Angel", Kenny unexpectedly reveals that he speaks Latin. And in "The Darkest Evening", he identifies a quote as coming from ''Theatre/TroilusAndCressida'' by Creator/williamShakespeare.

* HiddenDepths: In "Dark Angel", Kenny unexpectedly reveals that he speaks Latin.

* {{Patricide}}: The killer in [[spoiler: "The Sea Glass," who killed his father by accident with a punch after an argument. As Vera points out to him, if he had just told the police what he had done when it happened, he probably would have got away with a manslaughter charge, and probably had spent a couple of years in prison at most. However, when he decided to dump the body at sea to disguise what he had done instead, it became murder, and now he was looking at a life sentence.]]

** DC Holly Lawson
** DC Rebecca "Shep" Shepherd
** DC Hachim Cherradi
** Dr Billy Cartwright
** Dr Marcus Summer
** Dr Malcolm Donahue

** In "Tuesday's Child", one the teens who discovers the BodyOfTheWeek steals the victim's wallet and mobile phone; severely delaying the identification of the body and the investigation.

** Another variation happens in "Broken Promise." The VictimOfTheWeek actually invents a whole family that doesn't exist, and even changes his name by deed poll in an attempt to distance himself from his own father who had [[spoiler:killed another child in a hit-and-run while the VictimOfTheWeek was in the car with him when he was younger.]]

* ShellShockedVeteran: One of the soldiers from "Sandancers," was suffering from PTSD after doing a tour of Duty in Afghanistan where he had watched one of his friends being blown up. After trying to confess to a murder that he didn’t commit, and then pushing Vera to the floor and holding her down there after some building work outside gives him flashbacks to Afghanistan in the interview room, it’s little wonder that he ends up [[AteHisGun committing suicide.]] However the VictimOfTheWeek was also killed in the same way leaving Vera to then wonder whether she has two murders to investigate.

** [[spoiler: The killer in "Death of a Family Man," who killed his brother after an massive argument]].
** [[spoiler:The killer in "Prodigal Son," who murdered her own brother, who was blackmailing both her and her fiancée]].
** [[spoiler:The killer in "Dark Angel," who killed his half-brother after a violent argument about another crime they were both involved in]].
** [[spoiler:The killer in "Cuckoo," who killed his own brother due to divided loyalties with the drug gang he was in]].

* ShovelStrike: The VictimOfTheWeek in "Telling Tales" is done in by a blow to the head with [[ImprovisedWeapon a shovel.]]

* SuddenlyShouting: In "Dark Road", Vera, [[spoiler: grieving over Bethany's death]] and utterly furious with the suspect's AffablyEvil act and denials, stands up and outright yells at him.

* SympatheticMurderer: Quite a few...at least from the point of view of the audience and several members of Vera's team. Vera herself, however, does not hold with this trope and gives no quarter to murderers with understandable motives -- they killed someone, and that's an automatic MoralEventHorizon for Vera. Best seen in [[spoiler:"Old Wounds"]], where she delivers a particularly vicious parting shot to a murderer who had lost his daughter and subsequently killed the person he thought was responsible, after he thanks her for letting him say goodbye to his daughter with some dignity: [[spoiler: "You know where you can stick your thank-you."]]

** She also does this in "Castles in the Air" [[spoiler: when the murderer threatens to only throw herself off the top of her house, but also take her children with her.]]

* ThinkNothingOfIt: Vera's attitude to accolades: in "Blue" she's up to be awarded a service medal, crumples up the letter about it and doesn't tell anyone, then when Aiden happens to read the letter and presses her about not accepting it she tells him she's just doing her job, no matter how good she is at it. [[spoiler: She's true to her word and doesn't turn up to the awards ceremony, opting to see a domestic violence victim and her son off instead.]]

** In "Witness" it turns out [[spoiler: The VictimOfTheWeek was killed because they had done this to the murderer's fiancee by jumping on his head after they had stood up to the victim in a restaurant a few years prior. The fiancee died of an aneurysm a few days later.]]

* TwoDunIt: The murderer’s in [[spoiler: "The Escape Turn."]]
* TwoFaced: In "Little Lazarus", Vera arrests a psycho who has been terrifying a woman and her son for years. Half of his face is covered in horrific burn scars (which were caused by the VictimOfTheWeek), leading to the boy's nickname for him of 'the Shiny Man'. [[spoiler: He turns out to be the murderer after being tipped off by a judge as to their whereabouts.]]

* UnequalPairing: This indirectly leads to the death of the VictimOfTheWeek in "Home." [[spoiler:TheVictimOfTheWeek, Alison Glenn was trying to deal with her AbusiveDad, a brother with a [[AmbiguousDisorder learning disability,]] and a mother who has just abandoned them, when a newly qualified Social Worker takes on their case and visits. They end up having an affair (with the suggestion that the Social Worker took advantage of his position to have the relationship, since he was older, and was meant to be helping the family with it’s problems), and nine months later, Alison gives birth to a baby girl. Her Father gives the baby away to the Social Worker and his Wife, who raise the baby as their own. The Father's actions alienate Alison, who walks out on her brother and him, and disowns them. Years later, the now grown up baby discovers that Alison is her real mother, and end's up killing her when Alison reject's her.]]
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: In "Poster Child", the photographer who took an award-winning picture of the titular child returns to the neighbourhood in Baghdad where it happened and runs into a man who asks him about her. He promptly tells the man everything he knows, including her new name after she was adopted and that she now lives in England, causing the man to start looking for her [[spoiler: because he's in fact her brother, ultimately resulting in the death of her adoptive father, a police officer, and ultimately himself.]]

* {{Yandere}}: The killer in “The Darkest Evening,” who came across as mild mannered but was dangerously psychopathic underneath. He not only murdered his lover, who was also the mother of his child, he also killed a friendly neighbour of her’s who had been helping her out (he also happened to be her ex teacher), and then tried to [[NeverMyFault claim he had brought his murder on himself.]] He was also very emotionally abusive to his children.

* AnalogyBackfire: * ''Series/{{Vera}}'': In "Young Gods", the headmaster of an exclusive private school refers to a group of students as "golden lads and girls". Later Joe points out to Vera that the poem she was quoting was actually about death and is typically read at funerals:

** [[spoiler: The murderer in "Old Wounds."]]
** [[spoiler: The head of the Fraud squad]] in "Blood and Bone."

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Vera is famous for three things - her gruffness, her hat and her [[CoolCar Land Rover.]] Only one of the three was present in the pilot ("Hidden Depths.") and it wasn’t the hat or car. There was also no Kenny, and their investigation room was basically a very small meeting room, not the open plan office that is more familiar to viewers now.

** In "Tyger Tyger," Vera is investigating a hit and run at a port after a robbery, which the National Crime Agency also want to investigate, as they believe it has something to do with a crime family they have under surveillance. [[spoiler: Despite the best attempts of the bolshy NCA officer to pull rank, even though she had never investigated a murder before and briefly succeeding in getting Vera booted from the case by claiming that she is incompetent - which results in Kenny and Mark refusing to work with her and Aiden undermining her by giving Vera information, it is Vera who wins the battle by solving the crime, and arresting the perpetrator when reinstated after she discovers that the NCA officer had been paying bribes to an informant to get information.]]

* JustFriends: In “Against the Tide,” this leads to the death of the VictimOfTheWeek when [[spoiler:his best friend, who has developed romantic feelings for him ends up killing him when those feelings are rejected.]]

* RobbingTheDead: The Park Warden who found the VictimOfTheWeek in “Blue” decided to pinch his wallet and phone off his body and then tried to use the stolen debit card to feed her gambling addiction.

''Vera'' is an Creator/{{ITV}} detective television series based on the works of crime author Ann Cleeves, who also wrote the books that Creator/TheBBC series ''Series/{{Shetland}}'' is based on.

The central character is Detective Chief Inspector Vera Stanhope of the Northumberland & City police, played by Creator/BrendaBlethyn. She is obsessive about her work and driven by her own demons. If she's lonely she doesn't show it and faces the world with caustic wit, guile and courage. She plods along in a constantly disheveled state, but has a calculating mind, and despite her irascible personality, she cares deeply about her work and comrades. In many respects, she can be likened to a female Series/{{Columbo}}.

* BoulderBludgeon: The VictimOfTheWeek in "Silent Vpices" is bashed over the head with a rock and then held underwater until she drowns.

* GriefInducedSplit: In "Old Wounds", Bill Telling and Beryl Doyle divorced after their teenage daughter, Carrie, went missing during a miner's strike that turned violent; the police dismissed Carrie as [[NeverARunaway a runaway]], especially because [[DeliberateValuesDissonance she was a miner's daughter and biracial]]. Bill and Beryl's relationship was already rocky; Bill had a [[HairTriggerTemper nasty temper]] which worsened due to his grief turning to bitterness, he often worked long hours down the mines and rarely saw Beryl, who felt isolated [[spoiler:and eventually had a brief affair with an undercover police officer]]. They parted on bad terms and didn't see or speak to each other for three decades until Carrie's skeletal remains are uncovered; when Vera asks Bill if he knows where his ex-wife is so they can inform her, he snarks that she's "somewhere in hell, I hope". [[spoiler:They manage to reach something of an understanding after visiting the place where Carrie's body was buried together]].

Her long-suffering right-hand man was Detective Sergeant (DS) Joe Ashworth (David Leon) from series 1-4. Starting in series 5, DS Aiden Healy (Kenny Doughty) took over Ashworth's spot.

* AuditThhreat: In "Dark Angel", Vera and Aiden interview a recalcitrant pawnbroker. When she claims to have no record of the man they are investigating, they start to leave, then Vera looks around the shop and announces that she reckons most of the gear in here is bent and asks Aiden how long it will take him to get a warrant. Aiden replies "20 minutes" and Vera calmly starts talking about they can come back here and pull the place apart. At this point the pawnbroker cracks and tells them what they want to know.

* PercussiveMaintenance: In "Home", Vera wins the trust of the young son of the VictimOfTheWeek when the VegefulVendingMachine at the hospital [[NoSnackForYou doesn't give him his chocolate]], and she hits the machine in the right way to jar the chocolate loose.

* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Happened to the VictimOfTheWeek in “For the Grace of God,” that left him seriously injured. He probably would have survived with proper medical care, if the murderer, who had nothing to do with the initial beating, hadn’t come across him…

* NoSympathy: Poor Aiden. Twice he get’s punched in face by suspects that he is trying to arrest in two different episodes, and twice he get’s told by Vera that it was his own fault for not ducking out the way.

** The first VictimOfTheWeek in "Castles In The Air". The killer shot her when she opened the door of the chalet the killer believed their intended victim was staying. The motion-sensor lights were shining directly in the killer's face and they couldn't see the identity of the woman in the doorway.

** The second VictimOfTheWeek in "Castles In The Air," was killed when the murderer ran her over.

* MurderByInaction: In "Changing Tides", the killer allows the VictimOfTheWeek to go to sleep in an unoccupied chalet and then locks the door from the outside, knowing that she fill asphyxiate due to a gas leak from a faulty water heater.

** The first VictimOfTheWeek in "Castles In The Air". The killer shot here when she opned the door of the chalet the killer believed their intended victim was staying. The motion-sensor lights were shining directly in the killer's face and they coudn't see the identity of the woman in the doorway.

** The first VictimOfTheWeek in "Castles In The Air".

* PhoneyCall: In "Dark Road", Vera phones Bethany to warn her about a suspect she is with. Standing close to to the suspect, Bethany starts giving innocuous sounding replies about the weather and other trivialities.