I’m 75, playing a leading part on a popular TV show. How lucky am I?
Brenda Blethyn has many incredible roles under her belt – but Vera is one she keeps coming back to. Georgia Humphreys learns why
BEFORE Vera came along, its star, Brenda Blethyn, was thinking about quitting acting.
“I don’t know how serious I was, but it had crossed my mind,” confides the star, who was born in Ramsgate, and has played the titular role in the ITV drama since 2011.
“It is such a wonderful character to play, and I thought, ‘I’ll do my best on the pilot’ and when that got the stamp of approval from ITV, that they wanted to make more episodes, I was thrilled.”
The detective drama has just returned for an 11th series, with two feature-length episodes, while four more self-contained stories are expected next year.
The long-running series, set against the beautiful landscapes of North East England, is inspired by the best-selling novels and characters created by acclaimed crime writer Ann Cleeves, who Brenda travelled with to a crime seminar in Maryland in recent years.
“(People) were falling over themselves to talk to Ann Cleeves and showing their appreciation for Vera,” recalls Brenda who won a Golden Globe in 1997 for the movie Secrets & Lies. “It was quite wonderful.”
When series 10 aired in the UK, it averaged 7.5 million viewers, and it is a hit not just across the pond, but also in
Belgium, Denmark, France, Netherlands, and Norway.
Given its global popularity, there must have been some strange fan encounters along the way...
Brenda recalls: “We were filming once in a fairground in South Shields. It took forever to set this shot up because they wanted it to be done in one shot and I had to run all the way through the fairgrounds after the criminal. “We’d got it all the way down and they filmed it all the way along, and it just happened to end near the lady’s loo, and a lady came walking out of the loo and she went, ‘Oh Vera!’ and she ran and she flung her arms around my the neck. “They had to do the entire shot again. “No one was cross, it was sweet. It was funny.” But what it is about the no-nonsense Geordie character that viewers love so much? “They think they know her because she is ordinary. You feel like you could talk to her,” says Brenda. While there are much grittier crime shows around, Vera does have its darker moments and an intense filming process, it can be difficult to switch off from filming sometimes, Brenda reveals.
“My husband always says my body comes home a month before my head,” quips the chatty star, who has been married to art director Michael Mayhew, her second husband, since 2010.
“I’m here physically, but my mind is still spinning with the work that I’ve been doing.
“I can’t leave it alone. And even after I’ve done it, when you can’t change it, I’m thinking, ‘I wonder if I should have done that?”’
Having started her impressive acting career with the Royal National Theatre, Brenda’s television debut was Mike Leigh’s Grown-Ups on the BBC in 1980, while other notable film roles include The Witches, Little Voice and Saving Grace.
Asked what she would still like to tick off the career to-do list, she muses: “I don’t think there is anything.
“I always say I have never been hampered by ambition. I try to do my best in whatever it is I do; whether it’s a big part or a small part, doesn’t matter.
“I’m fortunate that here I am, I’m 75, and playing a leading part on a popular TV show. How lucky am I?”
There are also the locations she visits while filming Vera, whether it’s the “magnificent” Northumberland National Park, remote seaside locations or stunning farmland.
“If you’re going to have to spend six months away from home, there’s nowhere nicer you’d want to be than the northeast of England,” she gushes. The people are lovely, all the scenery is gorgeous.
“The team of actors and the crew on Vera are the best you can get. We’re like a big family.”