{"id":595271,"date":"2026-08-16T19:02:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T19:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/595271\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T19:02:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T19:02:12","slug":"brenda-blethyn-responds-to-idea-of-a-returning-special-for-beloved-itv-drama-vera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/595271\/","title":{"rendered":"Brenda Blethyn responds to idea of a returning special for beloved ITV drama Vera"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vera star Brenda Blethyn has revealed whether she’d return to play her iconic character one more time. Blethyn played DCI Vera Stanhop for 14 seasons before the series came to an end in last November.
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The actress had announced she’d be stepping down from the role the year prior, saying she wanted to spend more time with her family. <\/p>\n

\"brenda<\/p>\n

ITV<\/p>\n

Related: Best streaming services<\/a><\/p>\n

Now, speaking with Woman’s Day, Blethyn has shared if she’d go back to the character, saying (via Radio Times<\/a>): “In a drop of her bucket hat. Yes, if they did a special or something, of course I would. It was a wonderful job.”<\/p>\n

Blethyn previously stated that she didn’t think any kind of prequel series<\/a> would work for the character. <\/p>\n

“Some people have asked if there’s going to be a prequel. Personally, I don’t think they ever work,” she said last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I loved Morse and I liked Endeavour (its prequel) but I didn’t see any connection between the two shows. It was just an excuse to make a period set piece. The same with the prequel to Prime Suspect (Prime Suspect 1973).”<\/p>\n

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ITV<\/p>\n

Related: Here’s how Brenda Blethyn’s iconic British detective series could return to ITV as rumours continue<\/a><\/p>\n

Explaining her decision<\/a> to leave the show after announcing her departure, Blethyn said: “It was a hard decision and come March when I would normally be getting ready to go back up there, I’ll probably be crying.<\/p>\n

“As much as I loved all that, I’ve got a family at home and I realised I hadn’t had a summer for 14 years with my family.<\/p>\n

“So I still did another series because I couldn’t drag myself away,” Blethyn added. “But anyway it was time, that’s all.”<\/p>\n

Vera<\/a> seasons one to three are streaming now on Disney+.<\/p>\n

Visit our Streaming Guide<\/a> now to see at a glance where you can view ALL your favourite shows and movies.<\/p>\n

The new edition of Legends, a 100-page all-colour celebration of Ariana Grande, is here! Buy Ariana Grande in newsagents or online<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Reporter, Digital Spy \u00a0<\/p>\n

Stephanie is a freelance news writer, who previously covered WWE and AEW for Digital Spy.<\/p>\n

After graduating with a degree in history from Queen Mary University, London, she studied journalism at Birkbeck University.<\/p>\n

Outside of her work at Digital Spy, she writes about pop culture, with a special focus towards Irish media and how it intersects with politics.<\/p>\n

You can read more of her work on her Substack<\/a> page.<\/p>\n

LinkedIn<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vera star Brenda Blethyn has revealed whether she’d return to play her iconic character one more time. Blethyn…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":595272,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[131124,1105,252048,1107,93,61,60,184510,1135,252047,223989,282],"class_list":["post-595271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-collection-latest-news","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-7493ccb3-d79e-4fae-9599-ec421423dd80","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-issyndicated-false","tag-locale-gb","tag-shorttitle-brenda-blethyn-responds-to-idea-of-a-special-vera-episode","tag-sponsored-false","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}