Brenda Blethyn talks about life after Vera ahead of her appearance in Harrogate

Blethyn starred as Vera for 14 seasons until it ended last year and her performance as the unconventional, abrasive and disheveled detective was a global hit and the series sold to over 180 countries and territories worldwide.

Yet despite her acting pedigree and the adulation - the show attracted up to nine million viewers an episode - Blethyn reiterates that she often has nerves about her roles. She reveals this vulnerability describing her first day on set of the TV series she made after Vera, a lavish adaptation of Barbara Taylor Bradford’s epic novel A Woman of Substance.

“I was a bit anxious as I was about to do my first scene on the Yorkshire Moors and the producer, the writer and Jessica (Reynolds), who played the younger version of my character, and who I had never met before, we all hugged. It was a reassuring and magical moment. I instantly felt at home.”

While Blethyn may see herself as an imposter, that’s not how the film industry perceives her. She was been twice Oscar nominated including once for playing the awful mum to Jane Horrocks in Little Voice, and she won the Best Actress prize at Cannes for Secrets & Lies in 1996. She has won a Golden Globe and a BAFTA.

Blethyn, one of the UK’s favourite actresses, turned 80 in February and admits that she decided to hang up Vera Stanhope’s famous raincoat and bucket hat due to the long 16-hour hour days and not spending summers with her husband Michael Mayhew for 14 years due to filming in north-east England for up to six months each year.

“And I suddenly thought, I'd quite like a summer with him and our dog Jack and to build sandcastles in the sand. So it was time.”

She smiles, “But I loved every minute of it, the writing and the stories were always so good and so true to Ann Cleeves's creation. If you're sitting at home watching, there's no threat. She's not reliant on lipstick; she hasn't just stepped out on a catwalk and nobody lusting after her… I don't think! And it's family viewing. I thought the stories were so good but I had no idea she would go on to become such an iconic character.”

She laughs uproariously when she says that the maverick detective is described as “great lummox of a woman” when she appears in The Crow Trap, the first of Cleeves’ 11 books featuring Stanhope.

“And I thought, Why have they thought of me?” she shakes her head, highly amused. “And I read it and I absolutely loved the character. Ann is fantastic. I love the Shetland series written by her as well. She and I went to Reykjavík in Iceland together for a crime fiction festival a couple of years ago and we had a great time. We were there when the volcano erupted.”

Blethyn recalls the last day of filming Vera was emotional. “And not just for me either, many of the cast and crew were in tears. The production values on the show were so good and everyone got on so well. There wasn't an ego in sight for the whole 14 years. It was just great. In a quiet moments filming the last series, I would sit down and think, Oh, Lord, I've made a terrible mistake here (by leaving). But since then I’ve made A Woman of Substance and a film called Dragonfly.”

Highly acclaimed, and co-starring Andrea Riseborough, the genre-bending thriller received rave reviews when it came out late in 2025.

So more freedom means she can explore new projects? She nods, “Yes, there’s one project I've been trying to get off the ground for ages. It's a delightful story. The writer lives in Ramsgate where I live as well. And it's called Galina Petrovna's Three-Legged Dog Story.”

She reflects that playing Vera for so many years has made her more forthright in her own life, “I've learnt to speak up for myself, “ she reveals. “And I didn't as much before. I was always often bothered about it and weigh things up before I would give an opinion. Because I would be fearful of the reception of that opinion. But Vera's not fearful. She calls it like it is. And I just love the woman.”

And in the recent Channel 4 period drama, A Woman of Substance, filmed on location in Yorkshire she played another formidable woman whom she connected with.

Based on the book, written by Leeds-born Barbara Taylor Bradford, which sold 32 million copies, it is the sweeping story of Emma Harte, a bright and ambitious servant girl in a stately home in Yorkshire who ends up being the richest woman in the world.

Emma overcomes her impoverished beginnings to become a retail and business magnate in order to exact revenge of those who have wronged her.

“The series opened with older Emma in a limousine with a cocktail cabinet in the corner in 1970s uptown New York, and I thought, ‘Finally I’ve arrived!’ Where is the old raincoat and bucket hat from Vera? It was great. Variety is the spice of life and it was fun to embrace that and swan about in couture and high heels,” she laughs.

Revealing that during filming she felt a strong connection to the character of Emma, she explains: “Emma grew up in poverty as I did, and it resonated with me. My mum was a parlour maid in a big posh house and then gradually got promoted to ladies maid and met my dad who was a chauffeur in the household. Sadly mum didn’t become the richest woman in the world,” she smiles, adding, “but she was a grafter and a wonderful woman.”

So has she had chance build those sandcastles? “No! I hadn’t even unpacked my bag from Yorkshire when I was asked to do Dragonfly,” she says.

The award-winning actress got married to her longtime partner, theatre art director Michael in 2010 after living together for 35 years. The couple met in 1975 at the National Theatre and had an exceptionally long engagement before finally tying the knot in a small ceremony at a London registry office. She has since enthused about the benefits of ‘living apart together’. They have two separate apartments in the same building in Ramsgate on the Kent coast . Her husband lives in a flat above hers, and she describes the unconventional arrangement as “brilliant” They made the change to resolve temperature clashes—she prefers fresh air, while he is always cold.

So what’s next? “It hasn’t been confirmed at the moment, I’m not at liberty to say, but there is a project,” she smiles. “And no, I haven’t retired.”

Would she ever reprise her role as Vera? “In a drop of her bucket hat. Yes, if they did a special or something, of course I would. It was a wonderful job,” she says.

Brenda Blethyn is taking part in the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival at the Old Swan Hotel, Harrogate 23-26 July. www.harrogateinternationalfestival.com