Vera set 7
DVD Wholesale Quick Overview:
DCI Vera Stanhope has a way of calling everyone she interviews “love”. It’s sort of like Flo calling every one “honey”. I half expect Vera to snap, “So did you smash in her head, love, for the fun of it?”
But she doesn’t go that far. This is not a sweet little old lady, though. She is tenacious and intuitive and grumpy. And loyal and hard-working, too. I’m so glad we get another four episodes of her detecting.
….episode 1… “Natural Selection” Known by the locals as the Galapagos of the North, the Ternstone Island bird sanctuary has a resident ranger staff. A few ex-fishermen make a living taking out boats of seal and bird-watchers for tours. One overcast morning, the captain of one of these boats is horrified to see his fiancee, one of the rangers, lying dead on the rocks.
That’s just the start of this episode’s heartbreak.
Trivia: One of the 28 Farne Islands, off the Northumberland coast, filled in for Ternstone. In a 2017 interview, Brenda Blethyn = Vera, said, “It was beautiful on the Farne Islands, even though we were bombed by the birds who pooped on us.”
….episode 2… “Dark Angel” It’s the dead of night and a young man in a tshirt runs through the woods. He doesn’t really look scared, which is why it is a surprise when we see him flip over the railings of a bridge into the river below. Not to surface again – alive.
This episode has a GREAT last-minute twist. “The burden of guilt lays heavily.”
….episode 3… “Broken Promise” James Marshall is a senior studying journalism at the University of Northumberland. As befits his major, he is a vlogger, but he doesn’t leave a clue as to why he went to the top story of the condemned former science building and flung himself out of one of the plastic-covered windows. Or did he.
“They’re all gone now…. Better to pass out than fall asleep. Better to come round than wake up.”
….episode 4… “The Blanket Mire” It’s raining cats & dogs as members of the Northumberland Geological Survey finish up at the abandoned Brindale Mine. One of them slips trying to get up the road’s grassy verge. When he regains his feet, he is horrified to see he uncovered an arm. Attached to a dead body.
The 4 episodes of Set 7 total about 370 minutes. That’s almost movie-length each, allowing for many red herrings to get in the way of my deductive powers (in my own head). If you purchase Set 7 on disc, English SDH subtitles are available. There are no bonus extras on the discs.
If you’re an avid mystery watcher like me, I have some good and some bad news for you. The good news is that they started filming Set 8 in June 2017. The bad news is that on 4/9/17, Rose Hill interviewed Brenda Blethyn. Hill writes, “The 71 year-old has recently revealed that she did have second thoughts about returning to the crime drama [for Series 7]. … She said, ‘When we finished [filming] this latest series in October I was worn out. I began thinking I couldn’t do anymore of these. It was too exhausting.'”
But we’ll get at least one more set of this extraordinarily well-written series. Also, in the same interview, Hill asked Brenda if she was ever going to get rid of the floppy hat. Brenda was coy in her reply. I don’t think it’s her choice!
DVD Wholesale Main Features:
Actors: Brenda Blethyn, Kenny Doughty
Directors: Jamie Childs, Louise Hooper, Lee Haven Jones, John Hayes
Format: Box set, Color, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Language: English
Subtitles: English
Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. )
Number of discs: 4
Rated: NR-Not Rated
Studio: ACORN MEDIA
DVD Release Date: October 24, 2017
Run Time: 373 minutes
ASIN: B073LF8C3D
