I do love Vera.. come spring I'll probably cry

Star Brenda on leaving beloved character and region behind after 14 years

-  NICOLA METHVEN

Brenda Blethyn suspects she will miss playing Geordie detective Vera after 14 years in the role as she has grown to love the character and Northumberland region where the series was filmed.

Brenda says she grappled for a long time with the timing of her departure.

"It was a hard decision, because I love Vera and come March, when I would normally be getting ready to go back up there, I'll probably cry," she confesses.

"As much as I've loved working on it, I realised I hadn't had a summer for 14 years with my family. So I still did another series, and this one, because I couldn't drag myself away. But anyway, it was time. That's all."

DCI Vera Stanhope will make her final crime-fighting appearance at the beginning of the new year.

The big question for viewers is whether she will survive the two featurelength episodes or perhaps be killed off at the end of The Dark Wives.

"I'm saying nothing" laughs Brenda 78, adding that Vera is faced with all sorts of choices in the final instalments.

"Her superior officer the Inspector [played by Shobna Gulati] wants to promote her, so she's got to make a decision," she says, perhaps hinting it is a factor in her exit storyline.