She has worked with Robert Redford, been nominated for an Oscar and won Best Actress at Cannes, but Vera star Brenda Blethyn admits she still has impostor syndrome after five decades in showbiz.
“A lot of people have got it,” the legendary actress says in an exclusive chat with Woman’s Day.
Despite her acting pedigree, Brenda, 80, recalls her nerves on the first day on set for her latest TV series, a lavish adaptation of Barbara Taylor Bradford’s epic rags-to-riches novel A Woman Of Substance.
“When I turned up, they had already been filming for six weeks on the Yorkshire Moors,” she recalls.
“It was evening, there was a bit of drizzle and I was anxious as I was about to do my first scene. Then the producer, the writer and Jessica [Reynolds], who plays the younger version of my character, and I all hugged, even though we’d never met before. It was a reassuring and magical moment.”
From Vera to glamour
In Vera – the much-loved British crime drama, which ended after 14 seasons last year – Brenda played the iconic sharp detective with a messy personal life.
And in the period drama A Woman Of Substance, she plays another formidable woman. The book, which has sold 32 million copies, is the sweeping story of Emma Harte, a bright and ambitious servant girl in Yorkshire, Northern England, who overcomes her impoverished beginnings to become a retail and business magnate, exacting revenge on those who have wronged her.
Brenda tells, “It’s a great story traversing the 20th century in all its highs, lows and innovations. What’s not to like? It’s exciting and it ticks all the boxes. It’s sexy and tragic, then it arrives at her being the richest woman in the world! “The series opens with older Emma in a limousine with a cocktail cabinet in the corner in 1970s uptown New York. I thought, ‘Finally, I’ve arrived! Where is the old trench coat and bucket hat from Vera?’ It was great! “Variety is the spice of life and it was fun to embrace that, swanning about in couture and high heels.”
A story of resilience
Revealing that she felt a strong connection to the character of Emma, Brenda explains, “She’s an inspirational character who succeeds against the odds. Emma grew up in poverty, as I did, and it resonated with me.
“We had no electricity and went to bed by candlelight. My parents worked in service in a big, posh house and they earned a pittance. “My mum was a parlour maid, then gradually got promoted to lady’s maid and met my dad, who was a chauffeur in the household.Sadly, Mum didn’t become the richest woman in the world, but she was a grafter and a wonderful woman.”
While Brenda may see herself as an impostor, that’s not how the film industry perceives her. In 1998, she was nominated for an Academy Award for playing Jane Horrocks’ awful mum in Little Voice. Two years earlier, she’d won Best Actress at the Cannes film festival for Secrets & Lies.
And the accolades just keep coming – her most recent movie, 2025’s Dragonfly, received rave reviews, while Brenda’s performance as Detective Chief Inspector Vera Stanhope is dearly missed from our screens.
Speaking about why she decided to hang up Vera’s bucket hat last year, Brenda says the 16-hour days were gruelling and she’d vowed to spend more time “building sandcastles on the beach” near her seaside home in Ramsgate, Kent, with her husband Michael Mayhew.
The actress got married to her longtime partner Michael in 2010 after being together for 35 years.
Life after Vera
The couple met in 1975 and had a long engagement, before finally tying the knot in a small ceremony at a London registry office.
Brenda has since enthused about the benefits of “living apart together”.
They have two separate apartments in the same building. Michael 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 for the beloved star?
“It hasn’t been confirmed at the moment, so I’m not at liberty to say, but there is a project,” Brenda winks. “And no, I haven’t retired.”
Would she ever reprise her role as Vera?
“In a drop of her bucket hat,” she smiles.
“Yes, if they did a special or something, of course I would. It was a wonderful job.”
A Woman Of Substance screens 8.30pm Sundays on TVNZ 1 and streams on TVNZ+.
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