If there was ever any doubt how much love fans have for the phenomenon that is Vera then Thursday night at the City Hall settled it for good.
Enormous queues built up long before doors opened at 6.30pm for this special celebration and farewell event with the ITV show’s star Brenda Blethyn and her character’s creator Ann Cleeves. Once inside the noise, excitement and buzz rocketed and by the time the actress and writer took to stage over an hour later to face a packed auditorium, Vera-mani had swept through the building.
Many in the audience were wearing the trademark Vera bucket hat and there were whoops, cheers and lots of waving from the off. Among the Geordie masses were people from as far afield as Australia and Pennsylvania, as the books and series are popular worldwide.
Local TV presenter Steph McGovern, our engaging host for the night, was the first to appear on stage and told us we were in for “a proper treat”. She was right.
Love was in the air and it certainly seemed that the feeling was mutual, during an evening which felt like a cosy chat and soon saw the three joined by Vera co-stars David Leon, who plays DI Joe Ashworth, and Riley Jones (DC Mark Edwards) as surprise special guests. And Brenda, who later became emotional when looking back at scene footage from over the years, shared her own love for the region and its people.
She told the audience about her decision to leave the series she’s starred in since 2011 and – in answer to some later audience questions – she even said that, yes, she’d take a cameo role if there was to be a spin-off series and how she thought the drama should continue with Vera’s sidekick Joe Ashworth.
It was a night full of fun and laughter, thoroughly entertaining and interesting at the same time. Brenda and Ann, who as previously reported both picked up Outstanding Contribution award at this February’s regional Royal Television Society Awards, have proved to be a winning combination and there was insight into how the inimitable hat and mac-wearing detective was shaped between them.
Ann, who revealed she had been writing for 20 years before commercial success, told how she never really pictured the star of her Vera Stanhope series of books going about her work as her character is always ‘inside my head looking out’. And when she writing a new story, it might start with the sense of place but she never knows who the murderer will turn out to be, saying: “Vera and I usually get there about the same time!”
Brenda recalled she thought ‘move over Jane Tennyson’ – referencing a previous female TV detective – when she first took on the part , then wondered about her character’s ‘bag lady’ look’: “Why have they thought of me?!” The Oscar winning actress who, of course, is very glamorous in real life, added that she simply “loved the character” she ended up playing during 14 series, which amounted to 112 hours of prime time TV.
(Image: Barbara Hodgson)
Those commitments would mean spending about six months each year in the region and she said: “It was hard. I missed my family but I just loved being here in the North East. The people in the North East were wonderful; everything about it I loved.”
On her decision to leave her role, she told us: “It was really, really very hard because I loved being here.” The time approaches when annual filming would usually start and she added: “When it comes to May, when I would be going to pack, I’m going to be miserable and thinking have I made a mistake!”
But she’s already been busy with other work, having taken a last-minute part in the film Dragonfly in which she and local actress Andrea Riseborough play neighbours who build up a friendship but the it “gets a little dark”, she says. And, while she can’t reveal more for now, she is due to start work in a new TV series in a month or two.
The audience hung on every word and host Stephanie, whose own sense of humour adding to the night’s fun with extra Vera questions such as ‘did she ever wash that mac?’, kept everything nicely flowing, giving each guest a share of the spotlight so that we heard a variety of stories, including perils of driving Vera’s less than reliable Land Rover; little on-screen snippets and behind-the-scenes insights such as Brenda’s habit of regularly bringing in snacks and enjoying crosswords.
“The Times cryptic – who does it?” she asked the audience, to utter silence. There was laughter at Brenda’s response to David’s recollection of “an instant chemistry” between them when they first met, when she agreed with a throaty “Yeees!”
He also revealed: “Nobody works harder than Brenda,” noting she was always first on set and last to leave. He described the series’ use of beautiful locations as “a postcard of the region” while Riley, who lives in London now, describes how a second chance role in the drama, having first appeared as a young PC, changed his life, coming at a time when, two years post-graduation, he was working in Subway at Newcastle Central Station.
Following the interval, there came a Q&A with Stephanie reading questions which the audience had been invited to write down earlier – and there were some crackers. Illustrating the wide mix of ages in attendance, a 12–year-old boy, who had travelled up from Wrexham with his granddad, asked: ‘if a spin-off was ever made, would Brenda consider a cameo?’. “Yes!” said Brenda.
The actress also volunteered: “I think it should continue with Joe and the team.” Another asked about where she might choose to show her family on return visits and she said: “Lots of places.
“I love Newcastle, it’s a party town, and I would love to take them to Holy Island, it’s just beautiful there.”
The event was raising money for the Shiremoor Adventure Playground, the only one of its kind in the North East apparently, and adding to the feelgood factor was a video, shown on big screen behind the seated panel, which featured its good work and some of the children who benefit from it. Then came a sequence of clips showing Vera highlights from the series which the audience loved and which clearly moved Brenda who was soon wiping her eyes.
Stephanie said everyone was feeling “emotional” and at the end – when she brought a photographer on stage to take a group shot with the audience as the backdrop – it was like a parting with old friends. But Vera is still around, with Ann having recently written a new book, and Brenda – while no longer playing her – is set to be back on screen soon.
So it was a happy night and, from the buzz that continued as we filed out, everybody had a great time. A proper treat indeed.
View news Source: https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/vera-end-era-brenda-blethyn-31201231
