Brenda Blethyn interview, playing 'DI Vera Stanhope' in ITV drama 'Vera'

Brenda for those people that don't know what fear is about what she like there is absolutely a wonderful character and she is a rather shambolic she was not your normal run-of-the-mill detective you saw her in the street the last thing you think she was as a detective and she looks more like a bag lady frankly in fact in the book she's even more mm disheveled than our Vera but she's a dedicated police officer and it's her life really she's just totally dedicated to it and she's very very good at her job although she's she does make mistakes most detective female detects as you see on the TV and have some romantic liaison well Vera is not hampered with that and that's not to say she hasn't had romance in her life I'm sure she has she was one of these wonderfully down-to-earth people and part of her talents is you know she can chat to anybody but she's extracting this information yeah yeah she's great I mean if you sat next to her on the bus she'd be talking about the bargains down the co-op you know you get two-for-one packages and it she's so easy to talk to and of course it works very very well for her when she's questioning somebody she's got the real human touch hasn't she yeah and a great sense of humor too and a command such wonderful loyalty from her team and they all think she's a bit odd and a bit tough in a and you know probably talked about her behind her back but they all appreciate her and are loyal to her even the ones that she one in particular that she has a bit of the sparring which since suffer fools lightly she's no nonsense no absolutely no nonsense woman she's had a tough upbringing and she's a only child her mother died when she was quite young and and I think her father so defer is a bit of a waste of space as she was always having to prove herself in growing up and here she is a police officer and his her father would have thought that she was in a man's job and it was quite inappropriate for her to be doing she probably can't be very good doing it and so he was always putting her down but that's not a great load for her to carry because she's so incredibly resilient because of that upbringing because of where they lived in a remote part of the coastline and you know you have to survive in those conditions and she's got Joe who's sort of surrogate son Joe is her wonderful gorgeous right-hand man Joe Ashworth yeah he is kind of like a surrogate son to her and but she she even doesn't even let him in completely as you see he asks a favor of her in this first episode dodge NIF Tilly and she puts up a shell doesn't she hmm yeah she just doesn't something she's not comfortable dealing with children are one of them and what sort of parts of you are in Veera then because you love solving quizzes and crosswords oh I do love solving puzzles and brainteasers well we didn't have a television when we were kids so dad used to say as problems to do and scramble a word out but chaotic anagrams and or settles a riddle to solve I love it yes I'm a member of The Times crossword club I love it the heart of the puzzle the more I like it if he had to get a wardrobe through a keyhole I would work out of it I might never solve it that I would love trying to solve it and you grew up in Ramsgate do you go back there often oh I go back to my hometown Ramsgate as often as I can it's a lovely lovely place is such a comfort being there so many memories so many ghosts you can imagine people walking down the street and you know it's I'm from a large family and some of them are still living there and it's nice when we'll sort of go down on mass it's lovely what's the magic of Broadstairs in the Ramsgate area for you well you know it's just happy times of childhood and we were so fortunate even though we were poor growing up you know we had the seaside so you know people in big cities growing up poor people don't have the money to go on holidays go to the seaside we had it all the time even in the wintertime it's great to play on the beach and you know we were just so very very lucky and in I grew up just after the war so there was an air of optimism about the place everywhere so it was a very very nice environment we could play on the bomb sites you know it took a hammering during that war the old Luftwaffe but you know left its mark there but we play on the bomb sites and and all now you know sort of been rebuilt of course and rather trendy at the moment do you know Ramsgate has got the third best architecture in the country go on what after bass and Cheltenham yeah it's lovely lovely plays so little you know well kept secret little haven mmm and a you still patron of the Sea Cadets I am yes do US bulldog it was wonderful a couple of summers ago they had a tattoo and I had to stand on a podium with the command and fleet and along came the the mast bands Ken's playing they're marvelous musicians they are marching along and as they got to me that girl right eyes let was it that there that I was so proud of them hadn't he it was so wonderful you have done some amazing films and your OBE now that's wonderful we thrilled to get that oh yeah I couldn't believe it when it came through the door it was a text amount official look at envelopes and I took my old aunt Fran to the palace with me and sadly she she died just before Christmas um but she started to say all if I go to the palace will I have to wear so as soon as they a hat she will have to wear my teeth wasn't none of you don't want to from but because she was in her pushchair of course she was wheeled to the front of course and that when they struck at the national anthem the trumpet fanfare she shot out of her chair stood to attention of people simply put you in the chair and a false pretences but but she loved a murder-mystery program love them so I had fortunately I did have a rough DVD of our first episode and it wasn't finally it was an edited finished the editing wasn't finished on it music was on there but she did have a sneaky look at that so she did get to see the error in action because she plays some wonderful roles you know little voice and secret and lies it goes on and on but what you never played a detective before and so why did you want to be part of this no I just thought it was at my time of life is it's wonderful when such a superb character lands in your lap you know I consider mass are very very fortunate cuz I couldn't think of dozens of picked actresses who could play the part and so for it to come to me it was great it's what kind of ties in with my I'd have to be a fly on the wall in a forensic laboratory for instance I would just love to see how all of that works and catching the criminals and you know banging him up did you speak to any detectives to research my driver on the way to set each day was superior officer Tavira and in his day job before retired and so on the way to work we we thought up that the perfect crime between maybe we work that in sorry no that's neighbor we can work that in somewhere and you got wonderful guest actors on this as well Gina McKee in the first one Oh I mean how lucky were we to get Gina she is fantastic absolutely fantastic and I've always been a fan of hers it seems to me everything she's in is classy so I hope some of the Gina dust sprinkled on our first episode well lots of Brenda Duff there as well and it is spectacular and just funny let's talk about the wonderful Northumberland countryside because this sort of rugged vibrant nature is sort of like Vera I'd never been to Northumberland before I it took my breath away it is such a beautiful part of our country and and so many different different terrains so the beautiful Moors and the the seascapes fantastic in fact we were filming on along the beach on a very sort of overcast day and it seemed that the sea was higher than we were but it was beautiful and I was walking along and the crew were on the beach and suddenly I saw them all running up the page Ethel what are they doing but this wave came in and radically washed us out but it came up to our waist and then we had to carry on we have one more shot to get in so but they were only filming from the waist up was that we were squelching along filled our Wellington's and you enjoy playing the accent you know that oh yeah and I couldn't do it before and but I had help with it and of course the gorgeous David you know his sidekick and was there on hand all the time but he told me I didn't have anything to worry about and I had the stamp of approval from the people of Newcastle and Northumberland so I was pleased about that they are wonderful people and extreme yeah so so friendly I Love New Castle I loved working there I really really did if you go into a shop to try on a jacket or a dress or something that you know they stop it no I prefer that one time why don't you try that one on their pets no it's over in right yeah yeah really a my dad and the crew everybody on Veera was first class and that's one thing I appreciate with itv4 and they paid as much attention to the technicalities of the thing to the crew and the art department you know gave them absolutely what they needed and it shows yeah great production values that's the word I was looking for but they but one thing that people say about working up in the Northeast is it oh it's cold with that north wind blowing it is very cold was that north wind blowing ah there was some night shoot it was freezing do you have the thermals on oh yes but it's good for Vera because I'm bulked out quite a lot you know I could put on as much as I like so I was warmer than most people because she's like there's layers and layers and layers because she's bigger than I am and you know so it's quite nice you know no makeup you just fall into works bang and for those people that just really want you want to tune in to watch Vera what why should they bother you and you should watch there because she is one of us she is an ordinary person she could be living next door she's a masterful crime solver and she has a sense of humor and the stories are great and they're from ank leaves novels and she's not an award-winning crime writer for nothing and it got you in the winner thank you forever thank you

Channel: HelenJamesProduction

Views: 264,845

Rating: 4.8833728 out of 5

Keywords: Brenda Blethyn, David Leon, 'Vera' ITV drama, helen james productions ltd, Peter Hoar, Farren Blackburn, Joe Ashworth.Kate Bartlett, 'DI, Vera, Stanhope', Ann Cleeves

Id: q2BoSBDt3qo

Length: 13min 16sec (796 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 21 2011