HE’s a character that’s been spoken about many times over the last 14 years and Vera’s dad Hector made his first ever appearance on screen on Thursday night, as a flashback scene ‘confused’ viewers in the opening moments.
A full teaser for the last ever episode of Vera, based on author Ann Cleeves’ latest novel The Dark Wives, was released in December, after it had already been hinted that Brenda Blethyn’s much loved TV alias, DCI Stanhope would find herself in significant danger. It has been confirmed that the last feature length mystery would see Vera and her Northumberland & City Police investigate the death of a young student, whose body was found dumped in the wilds of Northumberland, just as a teenage girl went missing from a children’s home.
However, while those two matters dominated the plot in the Vera finale, it was an unexpected flashback to Vera’s past that kicked off the two hour tale; although it took a few seconds for fans watching at home to realise that they were watching a much younger Vera and her late dad Hector decades earlier. In the very episode of Vera, which aired on ITV back in 2011, Vera was seen seeking the help of sidekick Joe Asworth, David Leon, to scatter her father’s ashes in Whitley Bay.
Little has been known about Hector over the last 14 years of Vera being on TV, although there have been several indications that he and daughter Vera had a rather fractured relationship. The appearance of Hector on screen as the episode began lit the touchpaper for a number of nods to Vera’s past in the finale, as she was confronted by familiar faces from her younger days, who too offered more of an insight into what her earlier life was like.
There was also a flashback to a confrontation between Vera and her dad, following the death of her mother, as she tried to understand the plight of the missing teenager, who was struggling with the death of her own father.