Vera star Brenda Blethyn says a key reason she quit the detective TV show was to spend more time with her husband in Thanet – but has revealed he lives next door to her.
The 80-year-old multi-award-winning actor explained in a newspaper interview she and long-time partner Michael Mayhew “eat together, go out together and live together – but in separate apartments”.
Brenda Blethyn starred as Vera for ITV for 14 years and proved a huge hit
The pair, who wed in 2010 after being together for more than 30 years, live in Ramsgate – the town in which she grew up. She lives in the apartment below her husband’s. She says the living arrangements are “temporary” and they hope to “find somewhere together eventually”.
Speaking to the Daily Mail’s You magazine, she explained their unusual living arrangements as a consequence of “he likes hot, and I like cold”.
The star, who remains in high demand with roles taking her around the world, says of her hometown: “My idea of a holiday is going home. There’s nowhere else I would rather be.”
She was recently recruited to star in Channel 4 drama A Woman of Substance, after bowing out of Vera after 14 years.
Filming the long-running ITV detective show meant she was on location in Northumberland for half the year, while Michael remained at home.
The actor says there is “no place I would rather be” than in Ramsgate
And she admits, the passing of years has made her aware of her own mortality, with some charity stores in Ramsgate benefiting as a result.
She said: “You have to make sure you are not leaving any problems behind. I am actively getting rid of stuff; I think the charity shops in Ramsgate are sick of seeing me. The good stuff goes to them and the rest goes to the dump.”