Chuffed founder of Derbyshire car museum takes delivery of TV detective Vera’s car - which contains a surprise...

After taking delivery of the classic Landy Richard has discovered it has an automatic gearbox but in the show, which ran between 2011 and 2025, Vera can often clearly be seen changing gears.

After a little sleuthing of his own Richard discovered Blethyn only has a licence to drive an automatic. “In the series she was faking it - pretending to change gears,” laughs Richard as he takes delivery of the faded blue iconic Land Rover, beloved by fans of the show.

“I thought her Landy had been retrofitted with an auto box, but it looks like it may have been factory fitted - I’ve never seen an auto Defender before. It’s also been fitted with an extra entry step as she is only five feet two in height.

“This is the Holy Grail of Land Rovers and has quite a following - it's been on our TV screens, every Sunday night for the last 14 years. I was honoured to be asked by ITV to be the custodian of such a much-filmed machine which is another iconic piece of British design. It has 99,939 on the clock, so it seems a fitting mileage to retire her.”

Brenda Blethyn who played DCI Vera Stanhope in the show announced her retirement from the series in April 2024, with the last episode airing on Jan 1 this year.

Richard, whose collection of over 150 British cars are on display at The Great British Car Journey, added: “The original Land Rover, designed by Maurice Wilks was launched at the Amsterdam Motor Show on April 30th 1948 and although it was refined and updated over the years, Vera’s Defender retains many of the features and characteristics of the original.

“If you wanted Luxury in 1996, you could buy a Discovery or a Range Rover, but if you wanted a rugged go anywhere 4 x 4, it would have to be a Defender. More than two million traditional Land Rovers were built in Birmingham between 1948 and 2016 and this one has probably appeared on TV for more hours than any other.”