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If Brenda Blethyn has a day off you’ll more than likely catch her on the beach close to her Kent home, dipping her toes in the water with her beloved cockapoo Jack.
Although her career success suggests otherwise, the legendary actress insists she has no ambition whatsoever and, when asked what she’s going to be doing next, her answer couldn’t be simpler.
‘Paddling with Jack in the sea,’ she smiles. ‘It’s lovely. I don’t swim, although if you saw my bathroom– there are four swimsuits hanging up – it looks like I’ve swum The Channel, but they’re just for show!’
Will there be a Vera Special?
Warm, with a lovely self-deprecating sense of humour, Brenda is one of the country’s most popular and well-recognised actresses. Best known for her 14 years as the titular character in the long-running ITV detective series Vera. And, while the series has officially ended for good, she admits she wouldn’t be averse to digging out her character’s famous mac and fishing hat one last time.
‘I think that’s the end of it, but I’d do a special,’ she says. ‘It would be quite fun to do a special. But I think they’ve burnt the set and the car’s gone into a museum.’
The twice Oscar nominated actress is the proud owner of a BAFTA and Golden Globe and has worked with some of the world’s biggest stars, including Robert Redford, Faye Dunaway and Brad Pitt.
Yet she modestly insists that luck, rather than determination, has been responsible for her stratospheric career.
‘I’m somebody with zero ambition, I’m totally unhampered by ambition,’ she says. ‘I’m usually quite happy with wherever I am. I’ve never wanted the moon and stars. I’m quite happy with my lot.’
Brenda almost retired before doing Vera
Indeed, in 2011, Brenda was actually contemplating calling time on her career, when out of the blue she was invited to portray dishevelled Northumbrian detective Vera Stanhope.
‘I thought about retiring before Vera even started!’ she smiles. ‘You have different moods each day.
Some days you’re full of the joys of spring and feel like you can tackle anything and other days it’s an effort to put the kettle on!’
She left the show last year. ‘Because I’d had 14 years without a summer with my husband and my dog,’ she explains. ‘In fact, I haven’t had a proper going-away holiday since my husband was 40, which is nearly 40 years ago!’
So is a big adventure now on her bucket list?
‘I’d like to go up the Fjords and see what’s up there, but not really. Boring I am!’ she chuckles. ‘It’s good that they send me out to work!’
Brenda in A Woman of Substance
Certainly Brenda didn’t have to wait for long and she was quickly snapped up for the British film Dragonfly. No sooner had that finished than she was approached to star in the Channel 4 series A Woman of Substance. A new adaptation of Barbara Taylor Bradford’s best-seller, Brenda plays the role of the older Emma Harte, once an impoverished Yorkshire maid, who builds a clothes shop empire to become one of the richest women in the world.
‘I hope people like it,’ Brenda, 80, says. ‘It’s a fight against injustice.
We love to see people triumph over it and know that the struggle is worthwhile. I love her resilience. For somebody of her class to soar the way she did is quite wonderful.’
On working with Robert Redford and Brad Pitt
Brenda, who is married to British art director Michael Mayhew, first found fame in the Nineties after Robert Redford asked her to play Brad Pitt’s mum in the film A River Runs Through it.
‘I thought, Ooh, blooming ’eck!’.Brenda recalls incredulously. ‘I didn’t even have to audition, so when I turned up I was thinking he’d got the wrong person!
‘We go in his trailer and he says, “Let’s talk about this character. Now, she’s a missionary’s wife and when the going gets tough, she just err… she just err…”, and
I said, “What, get on with it?” He said, “Excuse me?” He thought I’d said, “Oh, get on with it!”’
Back to the present, she is hoping there will be more opportunities to play wealthy matriarch Emma Harte in further series of A Woman of Substance.
‘Dressing up in all that lovely stuff was really nice and hair and make-up was a revelation,’ she says. ‘They were experts at their job and the costumes were made beautifully and so cleverly ‘Mind you, there was a lot of attention paid to Vera as well, it just didn’t look like it!’ she grins.
Now filming is over and Brenda is home, she is looking forward to resuming her crossword puzzle rivalry with her brother.
‘I’m a crossword puzzle fiend,’ she admits.
‘My brother comes up every day and challenges me to the cryptic puzzles. We have fun doing that – we race each other. He entered for the prize once and actually won it. That put my nose right out of joint, because I’ve never won!’ she chuckles.
Perhaps Brenda actually is more ambitious than she lets on!
Words by Sue Crawford
Brenda and family
Despite Brenda - who’s happily married to theatre art director, Michael Mayhew - having no children of their own, family has always been very important to the actress, who has lots of nephews and nieces.
“It’s the biggest joy,” she says. “One of my best friends on earth happens to be my niece, Valerie. She has children who now have children so I’ve got great-great nieces! I’m not ringing them up every five minutes but if they wanted me, I’d be there like a shot and they know that.”
TV shows she’d like to appear on
The actress revealed that she’d love to appear on Dancing on Ice.
“I’ve often thought I’d like to have a go at that. But who’s going to let me?" she says. "I learned to roller skate for a show once. I did that alright, although I could only go forwards. But doing all the twiddles and turns on ice would be very difficult!"
Hopefully, we may be able to see Brenda trade in her signature raincoat and hat for a sparkly outfit and pair of ice-skating boots one day.