Welcome to British Isles Friday! British Isles Friday is a weekly event for sharing all things British and Irish — reviews, photos, opinions, trip reports, guides, links, resources, personal stories, interviews, and research posts. Join us each Friday to link your British and Irish themed content and to see what others have to share. The link list is at the bottom of this post. Pour a cup of tea or lift a pint and join our link party!

Last week, I reviewed a fun television show about teenage ghost busters, Lockwood & Co.

By One frame of an episode, Fair use

I watched the first few seasons of Vera several years ago, when it was on Hulu. But I’m not a usual subscriber of Hulu, so I kind of forgot about that series.

I didn’t realize until Rick started watching it that Vera was now available on Amazon Prime. We usually watch TV shows separately and movies together, so I had to wait until he was done with all elevan seasons before it was my turn to watch.

My turn came at a good time. A long-running series that I know I will enjoy is the perfect way to spend the gray and cold months of January and February.

While I was watching Seasons Five through Eleven, Season Twelve began to be released, a week at a time — so I’m all caught up!

British actress Brenda Blethyn, 2014. By Siebbi, CC BY 3.0, 

Vera is a TV series based on the Vera Stanhope books by Ann Cleves set in and, more often, around Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The scenes in the countryside are so calming for me. Watching this series inspired my fantasy travel to Berwick-upon-Tweed a few weeks ago.

Brenda Blethyn plays Vera, a seasoned detective late in her career. She is surrounded by mostly younger staff who handle the modern aspects of the job while she teaches them how to do all the old-fashioned detective work. She’s rough on the outside but reveals her depth of caring just often enough to keep those young colleagues devoted to her.

The criminals underestimate her. She looks like the kind of grandma who would take you on slow hikes to teach you every plant name and bird song, not like a detective who doggedly solves every crime.

Brenda Blethyn is 77 years old. I just love getting to see a woman in a late career job. She’s an inspiration!

Have you seen Vera? What did you think?