Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Brenda Blethyn, Kenny Doughty, Jon Morrison, Ibinabo Jack, Riley Jones, Paul Kaye, Barry Aird, Marian McLoughlin, David Birrell, Jalaal Hartley, Charlotte Pyke, Simon Trinder, Josh Barrow, Brian Lonsdale, Viraj Juneeja, Amaka Okafor, Janine Birkett, Jay Saighal, Jonathan Spencer, Charity Bedu-addo.

When it comes to murder, motive is seen as a prime indication of guilt, the trouble being is that an investigation is rarely that clean and clear cut and if everyone who had motive acted out on the dark fantasy of assassination and killing, then there would be an awful lot more bodies on the pathologist’s table; such is our depths of self-destruction and possible fall outs that death and murder are the two constants that drive the universe on.

Only Blood Will Tell how serious we are, and only blood spilt can lay the blame on those who see revenge, dishonour and the chance to execute their plans in the most brutal of ways, motive may not be the only way to see how someone can take advantage of a situation they find themselves in, but it is an indication of just how far we can fall if we find ourselves with unexpected means and the opportunity to act on the last desperate act of saving face or seeking retribution on those that have wronged us.

Whilst many a detective drama will go down this obvious route, sometimes it takes the less than glitzy to bring home the severity of such actions, and in the homes of the North East, where deprivation, lack of investment and the lack of opportunity has corroded many a soul and the areas surrounding Newcastle and Sunderland, it is perhaps a harder hit to take, especially one that understands just how much the sense of pain that comes from borrowing from loan sharks. When you add in the motive of secrets and betrayal, the recipe for death and foul play seem to always be set in motion; and as the new series of Vera, starring the indomitable Brenda Blethyn, strikes home in Blood Will Tell, it seems secrets and financial hardship are just as good a motive as any.

Unlike many detectives and certainly ones that rely too much on the method of the machine in which to solve the crime, there is a sense of comfort in the way that Ms. Blethyn in the role of the forthright senior detective takes on the case, a step on perhaps from the days of Jill Gascoine in The Gentle Touch and even in Hellen Mirren’s Jane Tennison; a woman with a dour sense of resolution but one not bound by playing a game in which the men have stipulated must be played.

A timely reminder that we are all at the risk of being in position of having a motive, that in age blighted, soured, left bleak by austerity and division, we have left ourselves open to be preyed upon by death at every waking moment.

Ian D. Hall