Brenda Blethyn on Vera's Fashion Sense and Why Fans Love Her | Exclusive Interview

when we did the pilot we knew it could work and would work and Adrian Shergill did a wonderful first episode and we're all hopeful that it would have a life but there's no guarantee of that and so we were all over the moon when the ITV commissioned it for the first series and here we are you know each time it's recommissioned it's it's a thrill because it's it's a bit like a family away from home the crew a lot of the crew are local people and there's lots of productions being made there but they're all loyal to Vera they will come back I mean it's a long time coming really it's an it for women to get their foot in the door and be playing leads but it's happening in life I mean the head of the Met is a woman the head of Northumberland police is actually called Vera luckily is a woman so I mean it's kind of reflecting real life really women are getting the jobs that have always been set aside for men Vera's father of being one of those people who thought Vera was a woman in a man's job and that's why there was conflict with her and her father and he didn't approve of her and there's still a lot of people like that but we're overcoming it and I think it's strange that America doesn't have females leads in the way that we do since they seem to have equality and everything else ever since you got could start a car on the ignition I think you're not having to turn the crank handle I think women have been equal partners the landscape of Northumberland I think is very very important to Vera it's a beautiful landscape I didn't know it very well at all before I went up there to play Vera the seascapes are beautiful the landscapes the Moors the cities are all have a story to tell they're all beautiful it used to be a thriving a shipbuilding city Newcastle and coal mining industry all that's gone so it was sort of a bit desolate for a while there but now the film industry has sort of made its home there for a lot of programs and it's revived the place um what I'm told tourism in the area is increased by 25% since viras has been made there and the people and if your viewers of thinking of going on holiday there the people in the Northeast are wonderful they are so so friendly Northumberland is stunningly beautiful it's an absolute joy to work there it really really is beautiful being out on the moors because we start work very very early in the morning it's driving out across those Moors at half-past five in the morning it's gorgeous well I think people like Vera because she's a woman of a certain age she does she looks like she hasn't just walked off a catwalk her performance is not dependent on lipstick and I think people just appreciate that sometimes people say to me oh you wouldn't be out to get wet those clothes going to work the police they're all good clothes that bear aware she just doesn't look in a mirror she doesn't see if this blouse goes with that skirt or or whatever and I just like that about her she thinks about the job in hand and not singing about herself all the time people appreciate her because I think she's this an honesty well-to-do upper-class lower cos all feel comfortable talking to Vera if you saw at a bus stop you'd chat which she's not a threat I was at the crime convention in Harrogate earlier in the year and the 12 year old boy we're doing a Q&A and a 12 year old boy stood up and said Vera is his and his friend's favorite program and and I said whether you surprised me I didn't realize young people like he said oh we absolutely love it because she's in authority but she's also gonna be very funny that was great [Music] you

Channel: BritBox

Views: 305,633

Keywords: BritBox, britbox, BritBox TV, britbox tv, British TV, BBC, ITV, British Television Series, vera interview, interview with brenda blethyn, brenda blethyn vera interview, brenda blethyn vera series 9, brenda blethyn vera stanhope, vera actress brenda blethyn, behind the scenes of Vera, Vera behind the scenes, vera season 9, vera season 8, vera stanhope fashion sense, playing vera stanhope, brenda blethyn interview vera

Id: ZRHkH05LKVc

Length: 4min 24sec (264 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 10 2019