Vera season 13: When did it start, number of episodes and how to watch the atmospheric Ann Cleeves drama from anywhere

Vera season 13 delivered plenty of heart-wrenching reveals, as well as the triumphant return of a former regular cast member.

The cold winter evenings just wouldn’t be the same without DCI Vera Stanhope’s no-nonsense approach to investigation and the latest series of Vera includes some particularly emotional cases. Inspired by Ann Cleeves’ bestselling Vera book series, the show is set in the North East of England and Vera season 13 saw DCI Stanhope’s team change dramatically once again. If you haven’t yet dived into the most recent instalment, you might just be wondering when you can see her back on your screen again and how many episodes there are. 

What was the Vera season 13 release date?

It might have seemed like an agonising wait for excited fans would’ve hoped, but the UK's Vera season 13 release date was Sunday 7th January. The new series of Vera started a few weeks after the Christmas special and just under a year since season 12 drew to a dramatic end. It drew to an end with the Vera season 13 finale on Sunday 21st January. 

How many episodes are there in Vera season 13? 

Sadly, Vera season 13 only consisted of three episodes and not the four that has been frequently seen in past series. This might come as a surprise or a source of disappointment to eager fans, however for a relatively short season the episodes we’ve seen so far have been some of the best. The start of Vera season 13 marked the return of Joe Ashworth, Vera’s former Detective Sergeant, now promoted to Detective Inspector. He came back after we saw actor David Leon leave Vera as Joe at the end of season 4.

How to watch Vera season 13 in the UK

If you haven’t seen any of Vera season 13 then the place to head is ITVX if you’re a UK-based viewer. You can also watch every episode of the ITV drama from the very beginning via this on-demand platform too and episodes from older seasons are often re-shown on ITV3 over weekends and in the evenings.

How to watch Vera season 13 in the US

The first episode of Vera season 13 landed on BritBox on Wednesday 28th February for viewers based in the US to enjoy and subsequent episodes will stream weekly. Vera seasons 1-12 can also be watched now via Amazon Prime Video with a BritBox subscription added to your package or via a standalone BritBox subscription. If you're tempted to see what BritBox has to offer, then it has a 7-day free trial and after that it costs $8.99 per month or $89.99 a year.  

How to watch Vera season 13 from anywhere

If you’re a citizen of the UK on holiday or working overseas and you're eager to re-watch Vera season 13 all you need is a VPN. This is a handy piece of software that changes your IP address, which allows you to access on-demand content as well as live TV just as you would normally at home.

Our sister site TechRadar has tested all of the major VPN services and they’ve found ExpressVPN to be the best. ExpressVPN is very reliable for content unblocking, has lightning-fast speeds and also has 24/7 customer support. They also offer a 30-day money-back guarantee, as well as 1 year of unlimited cloud storage on a 1-year subscription.

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If you've never installed a VPN before, don't worry, it's quick and easy. Just follow these three steps:

1. Download and install the VPN following ExpressVPN's easy-to-follow instructions.
2. Once you've installed your VPN, open the app and select your server location as anywhere in the UK.
3. With your VPN installed and server location set to UK, you can now watch Vera season 13 online. 

How many seasons of Vera are there? 

There are currently 13 seasons of Vera, including a special festive episode that aired on 26th December after Vera The Darkest Evening brought season 12 to a close in February 2023. Both The Darkest Evening and the Christmas special titled The Rising Tide were directly adapted from Ann Cleeves’ Vera novels. Several more episodes have adapted the plot of a specific one of her books too, like The Seagull in season 9, however most of the storylines are TV creations.

After Vera season 13 came to an end it was confirmed (much to the delight of fans) that even if there isn't going to be another season of Vera, there will definitely be more episodes to come. There will be two more episodes that are going to be filmed this spring and it's possible that this could make up a very short season 14 or that they could be specials.