Vera Stanhope is not the only fictional detective working in the North East of England. A number of other authors have also taken inspiration from the range of diverse locations our region has to offer: rolling landscapes, dramatic coastline, historic seaside towns and cities and a rich industrial heritage. They use these evocative settings as a backdrop for their own crime stories and detectives’ investigations.
DETECTIVES IN LITERATURE AND ON TV
NORTH EAST
Vera Stanhope is not the only fictional detective working in the North East of England. A number of other authors have also taken inspiration from the range of diverse locations our region has to offer: rolling landscapes, dramatic coastline, historic seaside towns and cities and a rich industrial heritage. They use these evocative settings as a backdrop for their own crime stories and detectives’ investigations.
VERA STANHOPE
Vera is the best-known North East based fictional detective character, having appeared regularly on our TV screens since 2011 in a critically acclaimed television series. It stars Brenda Blethyn as Detective Chief Inspector Vera Stanhope, an almost-retired officer in the fictional ‘Northumberland & City Police’, obsessed and driven by her work.
Vera is a loner, her manner is strong, defiant and often prickly, but she also possesses a skilled, calculating mind, is brave and cares deeply about work colleagues. Her down-to-earth appearance is permanently dishevelled, dressing in a large raincoat and sensible boots and peering from under a ubiquitous hat.
VERA STANHOPE
Vera is the best-known North East based fictional detective character, having appeared regularly on our TV screens since 2011 in a critically acclaimed television series. It stars Brenda Blethyn as Detective Chief Inspector Vera Stanhope, an almost-retired officer in the fictional ‘Northumberland & City Police’, obsessed and driven by her work.
Vera is a loner, her manner is strong, defiant and often prickly, but she also possesses a skilled, calculating mind, is brave and cares deeply about work colleagues. Her down-to-earth appearance is permanently dishevelled, dressing in a large raincoat and sensible boots and peering from under a ubiquitous hat.
The TV show is based on the best-selling novels of local author Ann Cleeves. She confessed the first Vera Stanhope story was meant to be a standalone book, but liked the character so much, she brought her back.
Cleeves also admits that Blethyn’s screen Vera is much more glamorous than her own creation. Her first description is of ‘a large woman, big bones amply covered, a bulbous nose, man-sized feet…her face blotched and pitted.’
Pictured: Vera author Ann Cleeves with actress Brenda Blethyn.
The TV show is based on the best-selling novels of local author Ann Cleeves. She confessed the first Vera Stanhope story was meant to be a standalone book, but liked the character so much, she brought her back.
Cleeves also admits that Blethyn’s screen Vera is much more glamorous than her own creation. Her first description is of ‘a large woman, big bones amply covered, a bulbous nose, man-sized feet…her face blotched and pitted.’
Pictured: Vera author Ann Cleeves with actress Brenda Blethyn.
ANN CLEEVES
We spoke to the Vera author, Ann Cleeves, exclusively for our Detectives exhibition. Watch below as she talks about her detective stories and characters, plus her influences and inspiration.
Local author Ann Cleeves is the accomplished writer of the Vera and Shetland series of crime novels, both successfully dramatised on television. She has recently written a Devon based novel, The Long Call which features a new detective character, Matthew Venn.
Ann grew up in Herefordshire and North Devon. After dropping out of university she took a number of temporary jobs: child care officer, women’s refuge leader, auxiliary coastguard, before returning to college and training to be a probation officer.
It was during a job as a cook at a bird observatory on Fair Isle in the Shetlands, that she met her future husband Tim, a visiting ornithologist. Soon after they married, Tim was appointed as warden of Hilbre, a tiny tidal island nature reserve, cut-off in the Dee Estuary with no mains electricity or water.
It was here that Ann began to write, when she was expecting her first child. In 2006, Ann, Tim and their two daughters finally achieved their ambition of moving to the North East.
In 2017, Ann was presented with the Diamond Dagger of the Crime Writers’ Association, a lifetime achievement award and the highest honour in British crime writing. Her books have been translated into 20 languages and feature regularly on bestseller lists around the world.
Ann writes about places that she knows and inspire her, and has a long-standing love of the countryside and the outdoors, which is reflected in her novels.
SPENDER
Vera isn’t the first high profile television detective series to successfully use the North East as a backdrop to their programme.
Twenty nine years ago, in 1991, the BBC commissioned a show called Spender, devised and written by Jimmy Nail and Ian La Frenais who had earlier worked together on the hit drama Auf Wiedersehen, Pet. It starred Nail as the title character, Detective Sergeant Freddie Spender, who often used unorthodox policing methods and was assigned the most dangerous police cases.
Spender showcased a variety of North East locations. The detective’s flat overlooked the Tyne Bridge and Quayside, while leafy Jesmond and the picturesque Kielder Reservoir also made appearances. By way of contrast, the Metrocentre carpark, the Metro rail system, and local bars all added to the gritty realism of the show.
Spender was regarded as one of the more remarkable TV detectives of the 1990s and the show was a smash hit for the BBC in terms of ratings. It ran for three series, 21 episodes, finishing with a feature-length special in 1993, and despite never being released on DVD, remains a fondly remembered TV classic.
Jimmy Nail as Detective Freddie Spender, Peter Guinness as Detective Gillespie and Berwick Kaler Detective Boyd.
NORTH EAST DETECTIVES
IN LITERATURE
DCI RYAN
The first DCI Ryan book, Holy Island, was released in 2015 and reached number one in the Amazon UK charts. A further 17 successful novels have since been published, many of which have also topped the bestsellers list and garnered a devoted army of loyal readers.
The novels are written by Northumberland resident LJ Ross, who situates each book in a different well-known Northumberland location, such as Sycamore Gap and Cragside. For her hero, Ross resisted making DCI Ryan a quirky detective cliché. The most important thing about him, she says, is that he’s from the south, adapting to life in the north.
DCI KATE DANIELS
North East investigator, DCI Kate Daniels, features in a series of crime novels by local author Mari Hannah. When Hannah’s career as a probation officer was ended by a serious assault, writing became a big part of her recovery, setting her on the path to multi-award-winning success.
DCI Kate Daniels is a determined, career-driven and brilliant detective, as well as being brave and courageous on duty.
Hannah’s passion is writing about realistic investigations and police procedures, with a complicated mystery, an intelligent plot and a thrilling journey that grabs the attention from the first page to the very last.
INSPECTOR JACK BRADY
The crime novels featuring DI Jack Brady are all set in the local seaside town of Whitley Bay. They are written by proud Scot, Danielle Ramsay, now a resident of the town, who explains she simply decided to write about what she knew and coupled it with her interest in the darker side of humanity.
Ramsay believes the location and setting for her novels provides the stories with a unique point of difference, along with the story of her lead character. Brady began as a clichéd, maverick heavy drinker with a self-destructive streak, but moved on, matured and developed, with a deep sense of loyalty to those around him.
DI LORRAINE HUNT
Detective Inspector Lorraine Hunt is the investigator in a series of crime novels beginning in 2004 with Run For Home. The books are set in the fictional Seahills council estate, located in Houghton-le-Spring between Sunderland and Durham and centre around the tough, crime-ridden location and its residents.
The books are by author Sheila Quigley, who lives in Houghton-le-Spring. She had written all her life but her breakthrough came in 2003, aged 55. She describes her main character, DI Lorraine Hunt, as a strong, gritty woman who shows no mercy, not afraid to get out and rough it to get her job done.
DCI LAMBERT
The lead investigator of two crime-fiction novels written by South Shields author, Adam Peacock, DCI Lambert is a detective with a murky, criminal past. Peacock’s debut book, Open Grave, released in 2018, was eight years in the making as he was teaching full time, while his follow-up, Grave Intent, arrived in 2019. Both received excellent reviews.
DCI Lambert is the type of detective who tirelessly works the case and follows the clues with some good old-fashioned police footwork. His investigations involve multiple murders with links to the criminal underworld and include multiple twisting, turning plot lines to keep the readers gripped throughout.
