It's official: Brenda Blethyn is returning for a 13th season of Vera.

She will reprise her role as Northumberland detective DCI Vera Stanhope, joined by a familiar face: David Leon, who is re-joining the popular crime drama series after nearly a decade away.

Leon portrayed Stanhope's police colleague DS Joe Ashworth in the first four seasons of Vera before moving on to new projects. He will return for season 13 following news that Kenny Doughty – who has co-starred as DS Aiden Healy since season five – is departing. 

Ibinabo Jack, who has played DC Jacqueline Williams since 2018, has also opted not to return for the 13th season. Blethyn said in an ITV press release: "It's been such a pleasure to work alongside Kenny and Ibinabo. They've both been terrific members of the Vera team, and I'll miss them. I'm absolutely over the moon to welcome David back to the show and can’t wait to get started."

Doughty and Jack will bow out in an upcoming episode titled "The Rising Tide." Meanwhile, we recently rounded up 10 things we appreciate about Brenda Blethyn – including her commitment to Vera.

"I start work on it a month before we start filming, for practical reasons, really," she has said. "Because it's not filmed chronologically, I have to know where her head is at any given time. And aside from that, I like to give my penn’orth of thoughts on the script, and if I can guess something that's about to happen, it has to get changed because we don't want people working it out!"

Check out the full feature here.

Are you excited to see Vera and Joe back together again?