Vera

Vera's final bow

Brenda Blethyn, with lowered binoculars, looks off-camera

Brenda Blethyn first pulled on the distinctive fishing hat, scarf and gabardine coat back in 2010, when episode one of Vera started filming in the North East for ITV. Now, after 14 years and more than 50 episodes, the award-winning actor has confirmed that she is stepping down from the role of DCI Vera Stanhope, after filming for her final two shows wrapped in May.

Hit TV shows filmed in Northumberland are driving a local non-media industry

Vera

We are in the wintry Northumberland countryside to celebrate Burns Night with friends on the lakeside at Kielder Water – a vast man-made reservoir surrounded by dense forest. Surprisingly, the chatter is not about the imminent delights of haggis, bagpipes and single malt, or the excitement of gathering beneath the darkest skies in Northern Europe – so prized by stargazers.

Our friend in the North: why media degrees aren't soft

As if we don’t have enough drama in our lives right now, I have to welcome the fact that so much of the TV variety is being filmed here in North East England. 

I dropped in on the set for CBBC’s special-effects-laden thriller Wolfblood, at a disused office block in North Shields, and of ITV’s long-running whodunnit Vera, filmed at old shipping buildings on the River Tyne.  

Julian Bellamy's speech to the RTS

Good evening. I’d like to start with an apology to Monica and Karen, our two signers tonight.  They maybe from Signpost - our multi-award winning Gateshead-based signing business -  but I bet they’ve not signed Anglo Saxon before….until tonight. Standby for a speech that can link Ant and Dec to the West Germanic version of Old English…yes, really.