BRENDA Blethyn returned to our screens last week as the hugely-popular hit show, Vera was watched by millions on ITV.

But it seems not everyone found it a hit as this Northern Echo reader was left far from impressed over the type of gun used in the latest episode.

James A Cowan, Belmont, Durham

Without wishing to spoil the enjoyment of those who enjoy the TV detective series "Vera", is Det Ch Insp Vera Stanhope, together with her colleagues based in Northumberland, now facing a reprimand and early retirement?

In the most recent episode of the new series the National Crime Agency, formed in 2013, plays a significant part and indicates that the storyline is set sometime after that date.  

However, the much-admired detective visits a gun club, one using handguns and one of the members of the same club is later arrested for committing a murder with a handgun!  

Did Vera forget that after the tragic massacre at Dunblane Primary School in 1996, when a teacher and 16 pupils were killed, handguns and gun clubs with handguns were banned in the UK in 1997, at least 16 years before the latest fictional crime in Northumberland was committed!  

If she and her colleagues had been more "up to speed" she could have prevented, rather than solving a heinous crime.

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