Veras Brenda Blethyn feared I was done for filming series

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Speaking ahead of the final episode of the series, Vera Stanhope star Brenda Blethyn detailed some of the challenges facing the ITV team during the shoot and the difficulties of filming during last year’s intense heatwave. The actress confessed she believed she was “done for” at one point while on set.

Vera has built a strong fanbase since it first aired back in 2011, with the Geordie detective becoming an icon in the crime drama genre.

The leading lady sports Vera’s signature look in each episode – a long mac and a hat.

However, Brenda admitted Vera almost lost her look thanks to the summer heat in 2022.

The series was filmed over 10 months, so while the weather threw up different situations, the heat posed the biggest threat to Vera’s image.

“We encountered extremes of weather,” Brenda recalled. “We shot one episode during that intense summer heatwave.

“It was 37C when we were filming on a golf course and I had all of Vera’s clobber on.

“I thought I was done for. It was so hot I had to unbutton Vera’s mac. I kept asking, ‘Could I take the mac off?’

“I could if I really wanted to. But I tell myself I’m not going to be any cooler if I take it off.”

Predictably, the other side of the weather spectrum can also make filming conditions tricky in Northumberland.

“We go to the other extreme doing The Darkest Evening when I’m frozen through to the marrow,” the 76-year-old added.

“The heated waistcoat came out for that one. But then I can’t button up Vera’s mac.

“So I had to take the waistcoat off. Vera’s costume is designed to make me look broader. So everything underneath finishes at the hip.”

She went on to confess even Vera’s hat doesn’t do much to keep her warm in the cold.

Detailing more about the episode, Brenda continued: “We have set the TV adaptation of The Darkest Evening in a violent storm and we learn yet more about Vera and her family.

“A body is found on the outskirts of land owned by some of her distant relatives.

“At the start of that story, with no signal on her phone, Vera finds herself having to find refuge from the storm to get help having found a baby in an abandoned car.

“And the only place she can go for help is into the Stanhope’s ancestral pile – Brockburn House – where Vera used to go as a child with her dad.”

She explained: “That brings back all kinds of memories for her.”

The Darkest Evening is the next episode to air, and it seems Vera will be taking a trip down memory lane.

Vera concludes on Sunday at 8pm on ITV.

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