Rewatching the old series on iplayer with Sam Ryan. It's such great drama and she is such a measured, credible, strong female lead. Yes the plots are far fetched but only on the same scale as the John Thaw Morse or Taggart series of old - it's cracking TV. When did it become a sort of mad soap opera where they get stuck underground in chambers and have utterly mad storylines? Love the current cast, especially Liz Carr, but it feels like it went from being really heavyweight drama to something more like Eldorado. Still watchable, but feels like a shame. Current series can't hold a torch to Vera say.