History Series / Vera

* CarCushion: In "Shadows in the Sky", the VictimOfTheWeek is off the top of a multi-storey carpark and lands on a car parked on the ground; seemingly the only car in an otherwise deserted row.

* TheAllegedCar: The beaten up, rusting, sputtering[note: except when the plot requires it to be silent] Land Rover Defender that Vera inherits from her father and becomes her trademark vehicle. At one point, brand new DC Cherradi nearly mistakes it for an abandoned car at a crime scene.

* BeastlyBloodsports: In "The Moth Catcher", one suspect turns out to have an alibi when Vera learns the blood on his jeans is badger blood, and discovers he had been 'lamping'--illegally hunting badgers with lamps--at the time of the murder.

* AmbiguousDisorder: The VictimOfTheWeek in "Changing Tides," had some kind of Acquired Brain Injury from a car accident when she was younger, which affected her brain development, and made her act immature, while the brother of the VictimOfTheWeek in "Home," was presumably was meant to have some kind of learning disability. [[note]] Both were played by neurotypical actors.[[/note]]

* UnequalPairing: This indirectly leads to the death of the VictimOfTheWeek in "Home." [[spoiler:TheVictimOfTheWeek, Alison Glenn was trying to deal with her AbusiveDad, a brother with a [[AmbiguousDisorder learning disability,]] and a mother who has just abandoned them, when a newly qualified Social Worker takes on their case and visits. They end up having an affair (with the suggestion that the Social Worker took advantage of his position to have the relationship, since he was older, and was meant to be helping the family with it’s problems), and nine months later, Alison gives birth to a baby girl. Her Father gives the baby away to the Social Worker and his Wife, who raise the baby as their own. The Father's actions alienate Alison, who walks out on her brother and him, and disowns them. Years later, the now grown up baby discovers that Alison is her real mother, and ends up killing her when Alison rejects her.]]

* ParentalFavoritism: Of the unintentional kind, but still forms part of the back story to the VictimOfTheWeek in "Tender." When her younger sister became ill with cancer, her parent's attention was somewhat understandably directed towards looking after the sister, leaving the victim feeling like she was being ignored and unloved. This then causes her to act out, start to commit petty crime, causing her parents to become expatriated by her due to everything else that was happening, and then leave home. The narration makes it clear that it was unforeseen circumstances that caused this, and that her parents did actually love and care for her very much, and are devastated when she is killed.

** The VictimOfTheWeek in "The Rising Tide," is found hanging in his bedroom, so naturally everyone thinks he committed suicide until the autopsy results comes back and reveals that he was was actually strangled first, and that he was was strung up to make it look like he had hung himself.

* RedShirt: Narrowly averted by [[spoiler Billy, the naïve desk sergeant who is on secondment]] in "The Rising Tide."

* TheBusComesBack: Joe Ashworth, after leaving at the end of Series 4, returns in Series 13.

** The VictimOfTheWeek’s father, an ex copper himself, in [[spoiler:”Blue.”]]

** The murderer in [[spoiler "Tender."]] It was more a case of AccidentalMurder, though.

* RageBreakingPoint: Happens in "Death of a Family Man," "Natural Selection," "Dark Angel," "As The Crow Flies," and “The Way the Wind Blows,” when the victims are killed by someone who lost their temper with them, either because of a heated argument or because of their callousness and lack of empathy over something the killer has found distressing.

* RedShirt: Narrowly averted by [[spoiler: Billy, the naive desk sergeant who is on secondcomement in "The Rising Tide."

** One of the suspects in “Blue” was knocked over in a hit and run [[spoiler:organised by the VictimOfTheWeek’s father, who believed he had something to do with his son’s death. He didn’t, and he survived his encounter with the car.]]

* OffingTheOffspring: The murderers in [[spoiler:"Telling Tales"]] and [[spoiler:"Parent Not Expected".]] In the latter, [[spoiler:he was in fact the VictimOfTheWeek’s Stepfather, but he had raised him since a baby, and the kid had always referred to him as Dad until he found out otherwise.]]

* OldCopYoungCop: DCI Vera Stanhope is usually paired with a much younger detective sergeant; originally Joe Ashworth and later Aiden Healy.