ITV seems to have become the go-to channel for crime and drama series set or filmed in picturesque parts of the British Isles. We have had Broadchurch set on the Dorset coast, The Bay set in Morecambe Bay, Deep Water set in The Lake District, Midsomer Murders filmed around the Thames and Chilterns area, and of course Morse and its spin-offs Endeavour and Lewis set and filmed in Oxford and surrounding areas. These are just the ones that immediately spring to mind.
With the Vera crime series, starring Brenda Blethyn as the motherly but stern lady detective, we are transported to the north-east, with its beautiful coastal and inland scenery and its wonderful local accents. Of the many locations used in the 9 series so far televised, the most frequently seen is Lindisfarne, otherwise known as Holy Island, which is where Vera’s house is (Snook Cottage in real life). Getting to and from Holy Island involves a drive along a causeway which is engulfed by the sea at high tide closing it to traffic for several hours twice a day, begging the question how is Vera able to rush to the latest crime scene if the tide is up? Something which is never really explained in the series.
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| Causeway and refuge Holy Island - geograph.org.uk - 971516. Photo by Chris Gunns, via Wikimedia Commons. |
Holy Island is a feature of the Northumberland coast which is unmistakeable to anyone heading north from Bamburgh, largely thanks to the castle perched at one end of it, looking like something out of a fairy tale. A fort dating from the Tudor period, the castle sits so naturally on its cone of rock that it almost seems an extension of the rock itself. The castle was built in 1550 and by the end of the 19th century it was a ruin, then in 1902 Edwin Lutyens restored it, converting it into a private house. The property is now run by the National Trust, while the other prominent historical landmark on the island, Lindisfarne Priory, dating from 1093, is run by English Heritage. There is a little village on the island with a cluster of cottages, a handful of shops and a couple of pubs. For nature lovers, the mudflats, salt marshes and dunes around the island form part of a National Nature Reserve.
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| Lindisfarne Castle in summer. Photo by Robert Eyers, via Wikimedia Commons. |
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