Vera - Silent Voices - 8:00 pm Tuesday, June 16 on ITV3

Brenda Blethyn (Actor) .. DCI Vera Stanhope

Born: February 20, 1946 in Kent

Best Known For: Secrets & Lies.

Early-life: Born Brenda Anne Bottle on February 20, 1946, in Ramsgate, Kent. She's the youngest of nine children of a parlour maid and a chauffeur. Money was tight when she was growing up. After excelling at maths at school, she worked as a secretary and bookkeeper in a bank. But she was always obsessed with films and acting and, at the age of 27, after divorcing her first husband, she gave up her day job and used her savings to fund a drama course at Guildford. She didn't tell her parents, and thought she would go back to her old career if things didn't work out.

Career: Blethyn gained early experience with two small theatre groups before joining the National Theatre in 1975. Her TV debut was in a 1979 episode of Tales of the Unexpected, and a year later she had a lead role in Mike Leigh's small-screen project Gloria. In 1990 she made her first film, The Witches, following that up with A River Runs Through It. Despite roles in Outside Edge and The Buddha of Suburbia, she didn't become a household name until her Oscar-nominated role in Leigh's Secrets & Lies. Since then she's starred in Girls' Night, Saving Grace, Pride & Prejudice, Atonement, London River, and gained another Oscar nomination for Little Voice. She returned to the small screen in 2011 playing the title role in ITV's detective series Vera.

Quote: 'I don't have ambition. My expectations are low.'

Trivia: Blethyn was awarded an OBE for services to drama in the 2003 New Year Honours List.

David Leon (Actor) .. DS Joe Ashworth

Best Known For: Vera.

Early-life: David Jeremy Leon was born in 1980 in Newcastle upon Tyne to Ann and Anthony. As a teenager, Leon was on the books of Blackburn Rovers, but they released him when he was 19. He turned to acting and successfully auditioned for the National Youth Theatre. He dropped out of drama school to shoot the film Alexander (2004) with Oliver Stone in Morocco. In 2006, he had a main role in the film These Foolish Things (2006).

Career: Leon went on to star in the miniseries The Wild West, RocknRolla (2008) and Walking with the Enemy (2013). Between 2011 and 2014, he starred alongside Brenda Blethyn in ITV drama Vera, playing DS Joe Ashworth.

Quote: 'You can't get away with enjoying acting in a working-class environment.'

Trivia: Leon's short film Orthodox was accepted into several international film festivals. He completed a feature length version of Orthodox in 2015.

Paul Ritter (Actor) .. Billy Cartwright

Jon Morrison (Actor) .. DC Kenny Lockhart

Cush Jumbo (Actor) .. DC Bethany Whelan

Penny Downie (Actor) .. Veronica

Kaye Wragg (Actor) .. Connie

Born: May 04, 1972 in Stockport

Best Known For: The Lakes, The Bill and Holby City.

Early-life: Kaye Michelle Wragg was born in Stockport on May 4, 1972. She went on to study Media Performance at the University of Salford. She first made an impact as an actress playing the manipulative Lucy Archer in Jimmy McGovern's acclaimed 1990s drama The Lakes.

Career: Wragg has been a regular on TV screens, appearing in the likes of The Sins, In a Land of Plenty, Mersey Beat, My Family, Wire in the Blood, No Angels, and The Bill. More recently, she has made guest appearances in Inspector George Gently, Vera, Silk, Call the Midwife, Silent Witness, Waterloo Road and Death in Paradise. In 2015, she became a regular on Holby City.

Quote: 'I'm very scared of the police. I always feel guilty when I've not done anything.'

Trivia: In The Bill, she always tried to do her own stunts.

Hannah Britland (Actor) .. Hannah

James Rastall (Actor) .. Simon

Daniel Lapaine (Actor) .. Michael Morgan

Born: April 16, 1970 in Sydney

Best Known For: Being the bridegroom in Muriel's Wedding.

Early-life: Daniel Lapaine was born in Sydney on April 16, 1970. His father originally came from Italy, but emigrated to Australia following the Second World War. Daniel trained to be an actor at the Australian National Institute of Dramatic Art, and graduated in 1992. Shortly afterwards, he began acting on stage, working with the Sydney Theatre and Bell Shakespeare companies, and made his TV debut the following year in The Feds: Deception.

Career: Lapaine first came to international attention when he appeared as a South African swimmer in Muriel's Wedding in 1994. Since then, he's cropped up in numerous American, British and Australian movies, including Polish Wedding (1998), 54 (1998), Brokedown Palace (1999), Double Jeopardy (1999) and The Abduction Club (2002). He's also become a familiar face on British TV thanks to roles in dramas such as Red Cap, Poirot , Jane Hall, Hotel Babylon, Waking the Dead, Vera, Death in Paradise and Inspector George Gently.

Quote: 'I usually play roles that seem like nice charming guys on the outside but are in fact dirty, horrible drug-pushing murderers.'

Trivia: Lapaine married actress Fay Ripley in 2001.

Daymon Britton (Actor) .. Danny Shaw

Antony Byrne (Actor) .. Craig

Stephanie Carey (Actor) .. Jenny

Pat Dunn (Actor) .. Irene

Sandra James-Young (Actor) .. Mel

Abigail Johnston (Actor) .. Alice

Adelle Leonce (Actor) .. Yasmin

Emma Rydal (Actor) .. Mattie

Kelly Scott (Actor) .. Kaye

Gaby Chiappe (Writer)

Elaine Collins (Producer)

Paul Whittington (Director)

Vera: Silent Voices

8:00 pm - 10:00 pm, Tuesday, June 16 on ITV3 (10)

About this Broadcast

Silent Voices
Season 2, Episode 2

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