Bleak practice
knot made any difference to their relationship and she lights up in a way Vera never would.
She said: “Anyone who tells you it’s just a piece of paper is wrong.
“I was quite surprised to find that it has brought us even closer together.
“We love each other – and now it’s official,” she said, with a twinkle in her eye. “He’s the great love of my love, without a doubt.
“I don’t want to be with anyone else and I know Michael feels the same. He’s got my back and I’ve got his.”
Brenda talked of a recent photographic exhibition he set up at The National Theatre in London, and said: “I don’t mind admitting, I was proud to visit it with him, as his wife.”
Global
It is all a far cry from her working class roots as the daughter of a one-time maid and former shepherd.
She came to acting later in life and was in her 30s when she got her TV break in 1980 with Mike Leigh’s BBC play GrownUps. In Channel 4’s 1984 sitcom Chance In A Million, opposite Simon Callow, Brenda became a mainstream star.
She had a steady theatrical career but in 1996, Leigh cast her in Secrets & Lies, which won her the first of her two Oscar nominations. She became a global star with a string of hits such as Little Voice, Saving Grace, Pride and Prejudice, and now has her pick of plum parts.
She has homes in South West London, Ramsgate, Kent – where she was born – and has rented a place for the p past three years during filming in Northumberland. And the countynty seems to have taken her to its heart. Recently a cabbie ie called southerner Brenda a “a good northern lass”.
She laughed: “The Northumbrian accent must be OK if the natives think I’m local.”
Even when times arere hard, Brenda is able find d the positives in life.
When her sister Jean, one of fB Brenda’sd’ eight siblings, died in Florida her family came to Ramsgate to scatter her ashes in the sea near the lighthouse.
Brenda said: “It was a sad occasion but there was also tons of laughter because we were all catching up.” Brenda also realises how fortunate she is to be healthy. In her 30s, she had a breast lump removed and although it grew back it proved to be benign. She said: “Happily, that was the end of that. “I’ve go got so many things that maybe other people wish they had.had Mine has been a wonderfulwo life. I’m not a womanw for regrets. “What would it have been like if I’d taken another path? I’ll never know.k But I quite like the oneo I did take. “Life is lovely. How fortunatetu are you when you can s say both work and home givei you so much pleasure? But I wouldn’t want it to come across as I’m all right, Jack. I appreciate just how lucky I am. I never, ever take it for granted.”