A special event named 'Viva Vera' is to take place in September to celebrate 30 years of Ann Cleeves working with her publisher Pan Macmillan.
Hosted by Channel 4's Steph McGovern, Ann will take to the stage at Whitley Bay Playhouse alongside Brenda Blethyn and Kenny Doughty, who play Vera Stanhope and Aiden Healy in the much-loved ITV detective drama. The announcement on Twitter has already seen a lot of excitement and could be a boost to tourism in the region, with fans contacting Ann from all over the world expressing their desire to be there.
Ann said: "It's going to be great fun, I hope lots of locals come. I've already seen that people are planning trips from across the country and even the world - there's a Swedish woman who has got her alarm set for 10am on Friday to get tickets.
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"It's to celebrate 30 years of me being published by Pan Macmillan and it's going to be great for Whitley Bay, everyone will be coming to stay and eat and drink in the restaurants and bars. It's so kind of the actors to agree to come and do it in my hometown."
In those 30 years, Ann has written several series of books. As well as the Two Rivers and Shetland series, which have both been adapted for TV, there were earlier detective novels featuring Palmer-Jones and Detective Inspector Ramsay.
However, it's Vera that's really captured the public's imagination, with 12 series of the show having aired on ITV. It's also contributed towards tourism in the North East, with Vera bus tours launching and many coming to Northumberland and North Tyneside especially after seeing it on the programme.
Have you visited somewhere new after seeing it on Vera? Let us know in the comments below!
Ann continued: "We really wanted to celebrate Vera because she's so popular and Brenda (Blethyn) has been such a support for me so we're celebrating that. I think (the success of Vera) is because she's a strong woman of a certain age and there aren't that many women in fiction who do that.
"Obviously, there's such affection because Brenda plays her so beautifully and is so close to the character in the book that people who have read them immediately recognise her in the TV show and both of them feed into each other.
"I was really moved after Covid when filming opened up again. Everyone had to be really cautious but there was a sense of relief that things were getting better, Vera was coming back to the North East. Somehow the chaos was over a bit and we were recovering."
Viva Vera takes place on September 1 at the Whitley Bay Playhouse. Tickets are available from 10am on Friday morning and a signed copy of the newest and tenth novel in the series, The Rising Tide, which is released on the same day, is included in the cost.
Ann finished: "We'd love to see as many locals as possible and get your tickets early because I think it's going to be very popular!"
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