Brenda Blethyn Talks Life After Veras Success

For 14 years she ruled the roost as the formidable DCI Vera Stanhope – the rumpled detective with a sharp tongue and an even sharper eye for .

But now has admitted that behind the scenes of the much-loved drama, she could occasionally ‘throw her weight about.’

The veteran actress, 80, who portrayed the famously no-nonsense detective from the show’s debut in 2011 until its emotional finale last year, revealed that while she was known for 'getting the giggles' behind the scenes on Vera, she had to behave rather differently on the set of her latest project.

Speaking at a Q&A screening for her new period drama A Woman of Substance, Brenda revealed that she had to be on her best behaviour after years of effectively ruling the Vera set.

She said: ‘I kind of behaved myself on this more because on Vera I sort of threw my weight about a bit, you know, and we could have a laugh now and again.

‘But this is like a new thing coming onto this, I didn't rule the roost on this, so I had to behave myself.’

Brenda spent more than a decade .

When the series finally came to an end last year, the actress admitted she found it difficult to say goodbye to the character who had become synonymous with her career.

‘It broke my heart when I read the script, and it was emotional to film,’ she said at the time, later admitting she struggled to ‘drag herself away’ from the role she had inhabited for so long.

Now she is returning to screens in a very different setting.

Brenda stars in Channel 4’s upcoming adaptation of Barbara Taylor Bradford’s best-selling novel A Woman of Substance, an epic rags-to-riches drama .

The story spans six decades, following Emma’s journey from a penniless Yorkshire kitchen maid in the early 1900s to a powerful business mogul by the 1970s.

The sweeping period drama also stars House of Guinness actress Jessica Reynolds, 27, alongside Emmett J. Scanlan, 47, and Will Mellor, 49.

For Brenda, however, the project carried a deeply personal resonance.

Her own mother, she revealed, began life working in service in a large house in Kent – an experience strikingly similar to the early life of the drama’s central character.

Speaking at the screening, she said: ‘My mum actually started life as a skivvy in a big house down in Kent, that’s where she met my dad, actually, he was a chauffeur.

‘She would work about three or four jobs a day to make ends meet. We were very, very poor growing up, very, very poor.

‘My mum was a wonderful woman and I used to love listening to her stories of what life was like in those days.

‘She was a kitchen maid who worked her way up to become a lady's maid, as Emma does, and she would tell me about brushing the lady’s hair.'

Brenda, full of admiration for this tale of a steely Yorkshire lass made good, added: ‘I’ve bought a copy of the original series and I plan to watch it after our version airs!'

A Woman of Substance airs on Channel 4 on Wednesday at 9pm.