Oh dear

Vera is the latest offering on tv that is set in the North East of England. I watched the first two episodes with great expectation, but gave up on the third and fourth because I couldn't bear listening to the dreadful attempts at a so called Geordie accent. With few exceptions the delivery was painfully slow, as if the actors had to frame the sounds in their heads before they attempted them in reality. The addition of 'pet' on every other sentence was an irritation. The leading actress was a strange choice, and the younger officer might have been a better leaad. Certainly he had the right sound.

Tv film makers seem bent on seeking out the locations that hark back to the North East of fifty years ago. There are no pit heaps now. The pits are long since closed and grassed over. The steel works have gone. The shipbuilding has very nearly disappeared. There are many beautiful places here, but do the filmakers seek them out? They do not. They want grim and gritty, and show them ad nauseam.

But I suppose there's virtue in their madness. Tourists won't be swarming into Northumberland and Durham on the basis of Vera, and that means we can keep Britain's best kept secret all to ourselves.