Vera

Vera like Morse needs two hours, we learn something of the characters and this makes it far more interesting than the one hour cop, shot, dead, programmes

I watched Vera for the first time last night.
I've always liked Brenda Blethyn, but I agree with you Gilly, her accent was dreadful, and I'm not even a Northumberland native!

I like Vera. I like the fact she is a normal, middle aged woman who has a lovely accent. The stories aren't that bad, I've seen worse.

I'm just amazed no idiot has decided she is not PC when she uses the word PET and want's it removed from our screens immediately.

Watched it for the second time last night. The story line was a little bit better than last week although Vera's Geordie accent was equally as terrible.

I am not sure what age Vera is meant to be POGS? But as a Geordie born and bred, we do call each other "Pet".

I found her confusing Gilly because of that accent. She seemed to be slightly stupid, I think because the accent was such a distraction, but perhaps that was part of the character - faux naive?
And do Detective Inspectors of either sex wander the moors wearing such silly attire? Wouldn't she have been better in a Berghaus technical jacket, a beanie and waterproof trousers?

Don't detective inspectors have to pass some sort of fitness test? She waddles more than I do with arthritic knees.

That was MrA's comment Merlot as Vera crouched uncomfortably behind a table, frantically texting her colleagues for help when one of the baddies had entered the victim's flat that she was searching by torchlight
(It might not have been a baddie but I had lost the plot by then)

I watch Vera only to see snippets of the area where I was born, it does jump about a bit, Tynemouth then Marsden beaches, giving the impression its all one place. I keep shouting to my OH I used to play there, or I used to get the ferry there, so I will continue to watch. Her accent is awful, as far as I know A Geordie accent is very difficult to learn

Bloomin' heck what planet am I on?????

My post should have read we DO NOT call each other pet [crazy woman emoticon]

A Geordie accent is very easy newist so easy infact that (even) I picked it up as soon as I could talk!

Well my husband's family say PET and they are Newcastle born and bred. Perhaps it depends which part you come from?

Either way I like it.

Oh I hate it POGS It used to be a common term of endearment when I was a child but you very rarely hear it these days. The Newcastle Geordie accent is a bit stronger than the (South)Tyne Geordie accent where I come from so perhaps that's what it is.

gillybob

I`d rather be called Pet than Duck, which is what`s used in these parts.

As it was where I came from, number! ''Ay-up, m'duck"...... I have to say, I do quite like to hear it, though I don't very often now , as I'm never down in Nottingham these days.

I'm wondering if I have been watching the same series now - I love it. It's atmospheric, and gives the characters involved time to develop, plus the scenery is beautiful. As for the Geordie accent, it may be a bad one, I can't tell, but at least I can understand it. My FiL is a Geordie who rarely lapses into his boyhood accent, but when he does (at funerals when we all go up there) I cannot understand a word - and they do call each other Pet. I get called it a lot because I think it is used when they can't remember a name .

I don't see that it's any slower than a Morse or a Poirot. Both of those are full of tiny details and are also beautiful to watch.

I love the series, love the views and love being called 'Pet'. I don't come from Newcastle but the series almost makes me wish I did.

Marelli another one here who misses Nottingham.I lived near and worked in the city for ten years and have nothing to take me back now. So ay up me duck to you.

Ay up, annsixty, my duck! I'm not likely to be heading that way again, either. I think I'd find it hard to live in a city now, though!

I was chatting with my grandma this afternoon about the term of endearment "Pet" and she says it's was very common at one time and you heard it quite a lot in shops "thanks very much pet" or "that will be 10 shillings pet" it was also used quite a bit by older women talking to young people (when they didn't know their name) "that was very nice, thanks pet" "could I have 2 first class stamps please pet" etc.

Anyway it is a very old fashioned term and not one you hear very often these days.

Sounds very like the term 'love', used a lot in the north, and still going strong I'm glad to say!

(Sorry, should have said 'north of England'!!)

I hear people saying Pet every day in my local shops.
I think that Vera must be a Northumbrian who went to a posh school.
When I first met my husband I could not understand a word he said, and his parents were worse. His accent got more understandable the more he had to mix with other people from different areas. Their accents never did. His uncle, born in Ashington and now living in Wales, calls everyone Pet.

The episodes are far too long. I bet most of us have dozed off half way through. I find the main character to be a matronly, scruffy and overweight woman rather than a high flying detective with a needle sharp brain, streets ahead of her male associates in the grey matter department. The story lines are very thin and a 1 hour allocation would make for a better, more gripping play.

Oh I had her as a policeman's daughter durhamjen out to prove that a women can do the job equally well better than any man !

The main character "Vera" is meant to be scruffy and overweight belzebu