Legendary actress Brenda Blethyn has lifted the lid on whether a return of hit TV crime show Vera, could ever be on the cards. Detective Chief Inspector Vera Stanhope was on our TV screens for over a decade and through the years has had huge success, amassing a large fan base. The final series of drama aired in January after ITV announced it would be ending.
The two final episodes of the detective drama aired on January 1 and 2 this year. 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.
Series 14 was the final series with the show concluding as Brenda Blethyn, who has portrayed the title character since the beginning, decided to leave. Speaking about the show coming to a close with ITV, the 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.”
The Vera star continued: “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 appeared on This Morning yesterday and was asked about a potential return of Vera by presenter Alison Hammond. Alison asked: “There is rumours on the street that Vera could come back. Would you ever go back to it and is it true these rumours?”
Brenda responded: “Well, no, I don’t think so. I think they’ve got rid of the set.” She spoke about being asked previously about whether she would return to the role of the TV detective, she said: “I told them ‘well, if they were doing a special, certainly, yes I would leap at it, but that’s unlikely to happen. I am too busy.”
The TV star didn’t find the decision to end the show an easy one to make and was worried she would live to regret it. She previously admitted: “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.
The actress 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 in the show, which isset in Yorkshire.
Speaking about her role in the new Channel 4 show, Brenda Blethyn said: “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.”