Brenda Blethyn's films include Secrets & Lies (1996), Saving Grace (2000) and Pride and Prejudice (2005). She's also had a glittering TV career with gritty dramas like Vera, in which she starred as a detective in the title role. In her personal life, Brenda Blethyn has been married twice and has no children.

At heart, Vera is a loner, the daughter of a bird taxidermist who provided a bleak, unloving childhood, but left her with a cozy house on a hill outside of town. Loneliness is an ongoing theme  Vera recognizes it well in the people she interviews and has an uncanny knack for getting them to confide in her.