The 79-year-old actress played one of TV’s most famous detectives
The beloved ITV series Vera came to an end earlier this year, but what has the actress been up to since she bid farewell to the role? Brenda Blethyn starred as one of TV’s most famous detectives: Detective Chief Inspector Vera Stanhope.
Based on the novels by Ann Cleeves, Vera is a nearly retired detective chief inspector based at Northumberland & City Police. The crime show ran for 14 years but came to an end this January. It attracted fans not only in the UK but from every corner of the globe including America and Australia.
Millions tuned in for the final scenes as speculation about Vera’s character was rife online. DCI Stanhope didn’t have a sad ending as many had predicted, instead she left our screens after packing her belongings and saying goodbye to her Northumberland & City Police office.
Brenda revealed the reason why she decided to bid farewell to the iconic role in an interview with ITV. The 79-year-old actress said: “It was a lovely summer back in 2023.
“And I came to realise I hadn’t had a summer with my husband for 14 years. Naturally I missed my family. And my dog Jack, although he was with me in the North East, but I didn’t see him much because I was working all day.”
She added: “Fourteen series of working on Vera is pretty good going. I wasn’t actually going to do any more after series thirteen, but of course ITV said they needed to wind the series up. So I said, ‘Oh go on then, I’ll do a couple more episodes.”
Brenda didn’t find the decision an easy one to make and was worried she would live to regret it. The Vera star added: “So I’m not retiring. Maybe semi-retired. I don’t want to be doing jobs which means going away for long periods of time. I’ve done that for the last 14 years. But, there again, never say never.”
The actress said on that last day of filming for Vera she couldn’t help thinking that she was making a mistake, but admitted “right here, and right now, it’s the right one for me and my family”.
After Brenda said an emotional goodbye to Vera, she was soon scooped up for another film. Speaking to the Radio Times, she said: “I was home, I hadn’t even unpacked my bag and my agent called me and said, ‘Oh, you’ve been offered a film’.”
The project is called Dragonfly and a release date has not been confirmed just yet. The actress has also started filming for another TV series which is a reboot of the 1985 show A Woman of Substance. Brenda stars as Emma Harte, an ambitious maid set in Yorkshire.
The rags-to-riches story is set in 1911 when Emma transforms her life and becomes the head of a business empire. Jessica Reynolds will play the younger version of Emma Harte.
Based on the bestselling Barbara Taylor Bradford novel, the story became Channel 4’s biggest ever drama success when it was first adapted 40 years ago. The new, eight-part adaptation, which will also air on Channel 4, began filming in Yorkshire in April.
Speaking about her new Channel 4 show Brenda Blethyn says: “I’m overjoyed to be taking on this iconic role, in the footsteps of the great Deborah Kerr. As a fan of Barbara Taylor Bradford, it is an unmissable opportunity to play the fierce Emma Harte.”
Filming for the show also took place in Liverpool, featuring bright yellow taxis and vintage cars with New York licence plates outside the famous Royal Liver Building. It is scheduled to be released later this year, or early 2026.
