Vera Christmas special sees actor make huge return - while two stars quit

06 December 2023 , 09:00

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One actor is making a huge return to ITV drama Vera for its Christmas special amid a double exit as two actors bid farewell to their characters for good (Image: ITV)

One star is making a huge return to Vera this Christmas for its festive special.

Actress Brenda Blethyn - who plays the titular role of DCI Vera Stanhope - will return to her usual detective duties in a few weeks' time for the festive special. It will spell the final appearance for her sidekick DS Aiden Healy - but there will also be a big return in the latest episode as one character comes back and joins her team in a new role.

The actor will appear in the Christmas special, titled The Rising Tide, which follows the story of Vera being taken back to her previous stomping ground after an affluent man ends up dead during a reunion trip with his friends.

Vera has a new member of her team (ITV)

Joining Vera's team will be PC Billy Billington - played by Jake Ashton-Nelson - who has starred as an officer at the police station front desk in a previous episode a few series back, but he will now be joining the CID team.

"PC Billy Billington, played by Jake Ashton-Nelson. Jake is terrific in this. He played an officer on the police station front desk in a previous episode. Somebody had come in to report something but he thought they were time wasting and sent them away. Vera really tore him off a strip for that. She told him to listen to what people had to say as it threw a spanner in the works for solving that particular case," Brenda explains of how Billy finds himself in the team.

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"So we come to this episode and Billy has put in for secondment to CID. Vera is going to give him a chance but he exasperates her. He’s very funny. Vera is his boss but there’s also an element of mothering in her relationship with Billy. She tries to guide him in the right direction but gives him a hard time. Mind you, Vera gives all of her team a hard time!"

This episode will mark Aiden Healy star Kenny Doughty's final time after he quit the show seven years on from his first appearance.

"I was sad when he said he was leaving. He’s my mate. We had filmed eight series together. I’ve never laughed so hard as I did with Kenny Doughty. Vera and Aiden became very close over the years. It’s not surprising because she spent most of her time with him at work. And it was a good working relationship," she shared of his exit from the show.

Jasmine Allday