Chester-le-Street café will appear in ITV's Vera as filming continues next week

Citrone's Café on Chester-le-Street's Front Street will be turned into a temporary set as filming for the 11th series continues.

Starting next week, film crews are expected to take over the café with filming taking place over the space of a week. 

Speaking to The Northern Echo, Francis Citrone, manager of Citrone's Café said the team were very "excited" and had already attracted lots of interest from customers.

He said: "We first found out about this around five weeks ago when a member of the crew asked if they could take pictures of our café.

"We agreed and they said they were going to redress the walls for filming - it's quite exciting, and it's created a lot of interest."

Mr Citrone said it is not the first time the café has proved popular with telly bosses hoping to secure a filming location.

He said: "This isn't the first time we have done anything like this, we have done one for the BBC called Landlords, and more over the past few years.

"I am glad they picked us," he added.

ITV previously confirmed the first two episodes of the new series will be broadcast in 2021, with the remaining four episodes filmed from Spring 2021 for broadcast in 2022.

Picture: OWEN HUMPHREYS

Brenda Blethyn, who plays Detective Chief Inspector Vera Stanhope, was recently spotted filming in Tynemouth.

Pictures as Brenda Blethyn spotted filming for 11th series of ITVs Vera

The series will see the return of Kenny Doughty as Detective Sergeant Aiden Healy, Jon Morrison, who plays Detective Constable Kenny Lockhart, Riley Jones, who plays Detective Constable Mark Edwards, and Ibinabo Jack, who plays Detective Constable Jacqueline Williams.

Blethyn previously said: “The safety of all personnel is always at the forefront of production, and with all the extra Covid precautions in place, we will relish creating and delivering six cracking new episodes.”