Series seven saw Brendan Blethyn reprising her role as the eccentric police sleuth DCI Vera Stanhope as she was drawn into the mysterious murder of a young woman on an island in the North East of England.
The two-hour opening instalment – titled Natural Selection – followed the investigation of a young conservationist called Gemma Wyatt on Ternstone, a remote and inaccessible island off the coast of Northumberland.
Initially the finger was pointed at Gemma’s fiancé Ryan (played by Matthew Wilson) and even Gemma’s sister Alice (Kerrie Hayes).
In the end, it emerged that the killer of the young woman was in fact Vicki Hogarth (Georgia Maguire), whose sister Beth had been bullied by Gemma and consequently developed bulimia.
However, many people were not impressed by the accents used by the actors and many took to social media to complain.
“Accents are getting progressively more abysmal as this episode goes on,” said one person.
Another posted: “My god the accents on #vera are just horrendous, bar Brenda Bs. Cast some Geordies man !!!! X.”
Someone else wrote: “Love #vera but Vera’s accent gone upmarket and had an effect on cast. Plenty of Geordie actors up here!”
Numerous others also took to Twitter to comment on the shocking twist that they had not seen coming after being distracted by the red herrings.
“Didn’t see that coming! #vera Stunning scenery & location – great writing and acting – deserves tons of awards – just love @BrendaBlethyn,” posted one person.
A second wrote: “Certainly couldn’t be a detective after watching #VERA I got it completely wrong, love watching it & seeing the beautiful north east. home [sic].”
“Yeah, I did. But it’s pretty full on for me and I’m in every scene and I’m away from home and my husband and I’d like to see him,” she explained.
Holly Willoughby added: “And also physically demanding yes? Because you don’t shy away from doing your own stunts do you?”
“So, I have to get myself pretty fit-ish before starting because it’s pretty full on, yeah,” Brenda replied.
Vera airs on ITV on Sundays at 8pm.