I'm glad Vera's ending - the show reeks of desperation

After 13 years, 46 episodes and heaven knows how many mysterious deaths, the most famous trench coat-wearing detective this side of Columbo has announced she is handing in her badge.

"I'm sad to be saying cheerio," announced Brenda Blethyn, aka crime-busting Detective Chief Inspector Vera Stanhope.

"Thank you from the bottom of my heart." She confirmed there would be one final season of the Northumberland-set crime series before Vera took herself and her flapping raingear into retirement.

Blethyn, who has played the character since 2011, deserves a rest. In a crowded field, she was one of the modern crime genre's most memorable sleuths - no-nonsense but rarely cynical, ruthless in her pursuit of justice yet always optimistic about the innate goodness of her friends and neighbours. She's done her bit.

There is predictable disappointment among fans that Vera is coming to an end. However, more than a few may see this week's news as a mercy. The drama, so addictive in its prime, had been on a downward trajectory for a while, and it will be a relief to many that it is bowing out before it truly becomes a shadow of its former self.

Vera was always an anomaly. It arrived in the heyday of Nordic noir when small screen whodunnits were grim and serious, the detectives invariably pre-packaged in pretentious knitwear. Blethyn's Vera was nothing like that. As flintily portrayed by Blethyn, the character is an old-school gumshoe - straight-talking and matter-of-fact, without lacking the stylish miserablism that was de rigueur at the time.

The character had originated in a sequence of novels by Ann Cleeves, the first published in 1999. Yet in a way, she harked back to an even more vintage era.

The capers of Agatha Christie and characters such as Miss Marple. Vera, the show, could be dark - the first episode alone features two murders, a kidnapping and Vera mourning the death of her father. But the script always ticked reliably along, with the reasonable expectation that the culprit would be unmasked before the final credits. It was cosy crime long before a deluge of modern Agatha Christie adaptations - and Rian Johnson's blockbusting Knives Out - made the term popular.

Still, nothing lasts forever, and week after week, the sheer accumulation of problematic corpses has extracted a toll on Vera's character, who seemed increasingly grumpy and withdrawn, and on the earnest and devoted Blethyn. The series suffered a setback last year when co-star Kenny Doughty left after eight years. He stepped away from the part of Vera's loyal foil, DS Aiden Healy, at the conclusion of the 2023 Christmas special - citing "personal and professional reasons".

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Vera's producers tried to compensate for his departure by bringing back an earlier sidekick in David Leon's DS Joe Ashworth in the most recent series. The move reeked of desperation - Ashworth had returned in the unconvincing guise of a police inspector sent to keep tabs on Vera amid official concerns she and her crew lacked "strategic direction". Vera was unimpressed - and viewers may have felt likewise at this far-fetched attempt to crowbar in an old character.

With Doughty's exit, Blethyn appears to have decided her days sniffing out evil-doers in Northumberland were coming to a close. It's a wise move. The worst thing she could have done was slog on when her heart wasn't in it. There are only so many ways someone can be murdered in small towns across the North East before it starts to become repetitive. Quitting while she was (just about) ahead may prove the smartest surprise Vera ever pulled off.