Vera icon on new A Woman of Substance role: 'It’s quite nice to take the hat and mac off!'

After 14 years leading the cast of Vera and being the one to suss out perpetrators, crack cases and spot clues, it's now time for Brenda Blethyn to take on an entirely different kind of TV role.

Although the actress went on to star in movie Dragonfly soon after bidding farewell to Vera, Blethyn is now heading up another TV drama with the release of A Woman of Substance.

The period drama charts the life of Emma Harte, a once penniless maid who went on to become a business mogul with riches aplenty. House of Guinness star Jessica Reynolds takes on the younger role of Emma while Blethyn embodies the older version of the character.

Remarking about her new role at a screening Q&A for the series, Blethyn said when asked about how it compared to her Vera days: "It’s quite nice to take the hat and mac off! Yeah it is [a different look], I enjoyed it very much."

She went on: "It was a very happy shoot, I have to say. [I played Vera] for 14 years, yeah a long time. This really, really was exciting. I mean, just everything about it - all the designers, makeup artists did a wonderful job. Took a few years off! Because I did that for so long, it really was very nice too - I did another job in between Vera and this, which was Dragonfly, but this was hot on the heels, and I was thrilled to be asked to do it."

Of course, it wouldn't have quite been a series of Vera without her iconic mac and hat combo but alas, it's time to bid farewell to all of that as Blethyn takes on a decidedly more glamorous role in A Woman of Substance.

The synopsis of the series reads: "Based on the best-selling novel by Barbara Taylor Bradford OBE, A Woman of Substance is an epic drama spanning six decades, charting the rise of Emma Harte from penniless Yorkshire maid in the early 1900s to powerful 1970s business mogul.

"Betrayed by her aristocratic lover and cast out when she becomes pregnant, young Emma vows a lifelong revenge on the family she once worked for and who underestimated her. Through love, loss, war, and unrelenting ambition, Emma amasses power, outwits rivals, and shapes her own destiny.

"In the 1970s, as she approaches her 80th birthday, betrayal from within Emma’s own family threatens everything she’s fought a lifetime to build."

Read more:

• Brenda Blethyn compares herself to A Woman of Substance character: "I’m devoid of ambition"
• Vera icon Brenda Blethyn is under fire in exclusive first-look clip at dramatic new Channel 4 series

As for what most appealed to her about the role, Blethyn also said in a press pack for the series: "I also loved the resilience of Emma Harte, and her work ethic, which is something that was instilled in us as kids when I grew up – if you want something then you have to work hard to pay for it. So I understood that pretty well.

"It must have been so hard for someone like Emma to succeed as she does in the story, she’s so brave and she has real steel in her. She is accused of putting work before family, but whatever rung of the ladder you're on, you've got to put food on the table, and you've got to work. You've got to make ends meet and she did what she had to."

She added: "Coming off of so many years on Vera, it was quite nice to dress up in a few nice togs too!"

A Woman of Substance will premiere on Wednesday 11 and Thursday 12 March at 9pm on Channel 4.

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