2-time Academy Award nominee Brenda Blethyn will don her trademark floppy fishing tackle shop hat to make the Northumberland countryside safe once again as Vera S9 is set for a 2019 premiere. Based on the bestselling Inspector Stanhope books by award-winning writer Ann Cleeves, series 9 will see DCI Vera Stanhope and her team are drawn into four more compelling mysteries.

Kenny Doughty returns as Detective Sergeant Aiden Healy, who over the years has proved himself to be a strong and reliable partner to DCI Stanhope. Completing Vera’s team is Jon Morrison who plays DC Kenny Lockhart, Riley Jones who plays DC Mark Edwards and Ibinabo Jack who plays Vera’s newest recruit, DC Jacqueline Williams, who transferred from the Fraud Squad in series eight.

Once again, Blethyn is joined by a strong ensemble guest cast which includes Peter Davison (Toast of London, Doctor Who), James Atherton (Coronation Street, Porters), Jodie McNee (Britannia, Little Boy Blue), Adrian Lukis (Collateral, The Crown) and Paul Kaye (Game of Thrones, Three Girls) for series 9.

The first episode, entitled Blind Spot and written by Paul Logue, begins with Joanne Caswell, a bright and ambitious newly qualified HMP forensic psychologist working in Newcastle. When her body is found dumped on a landfill site far from home, Vera alights on the fact that Joanne had been looking into the crime of a former patient who had recently committed suicide. Vera must follow the trail that Joanne has left behind to uncover who might have had a motive to kill her.

The fourth episode, entitled The Seagull, has been adapted from Ann’s latest book of the same title. DCI Stanhope has to open up a cold case when she discovers not one but two skeletons hidden in a culvert near Whitley Bay. One of the skeletons is suspected to be a missing person, Robbie Marshall. And when an old acquaintance of Robbie’s is murdered in the present, Vera suspects that the two deaths must be connected.

Look for Vera S8 beginning on public television stations in America in the coming months.