Original subtitles

So, we've got Vera's approach with Joe.

She's gonna look through that window there.

JILL HALFPENNY: 2024 marked the filming

of the last-ever series of the hit TV drama Vera.

And we're set, and action.

If one of my cases did wrongly convict someone,

I'd want it questioned.

We're in our fifth week of filming. It's been great fun.

Can we cut there?

Vera's not like your ordinary run-of-the-mill detective.

You sure about that?

It's the hat, it's the coat,

even the silhouette -

you know exactly who it is and what it's all about.

That's the icon.

She's so enigmatic as a character.

Action.

All the people that I know who love Vera

love to come and visit Northumberland.

We've kind of played our part in putting it on the map.

Oh, merci, monsieur.

It's remarkable that so many viewers

from so many different countries have taken to Vera.

DUBBED IN GERMAN:

Oh, there've been so, so many wonderful actors in Vera.

Yeah, yeah, I did.

I don't think it was until the last day

when it was the reality of this is gonna...

By six o'clock, this'll be over.

What happens next?

Oh, it's so bittersweet.

It really, really is cos I've loved every minute of this job.

But now after 14 years,

it's time for us all to bid a final farewell, pet... Happy?

..to Vera. Perfect.

Brenda's gonna be up there,

we're gonna be all back here, we'll have a drone flying. Yeah.

And the stray dog's kind of following her.

Today, the cameras turn on the final-ever scene of Vera,

the last moment viewers will ever see of this beloved character.

Good girl. Right.

Yes, I know.

Everyone ready?

Set. Camera set.

And action.

Well done, Brenda.

It's a beautiful shot. Yeah?

From windy beaches to Newcastle's urban streets,

it was back in 2011 that we first met DCI Vera Stanhope.

'When you make the pilot,

'there's no guarantee that any more are going to be made,

'and the first one was Hidden Depths.'

Oh, there's a very famous singer in that

who plays a dead body.

I can't remember his name.

It was Geordie singer Sam Fender, love.

And so, we were all hoping obviously that it would be made into a series,

and it wasn't long before they said, "Yeah."

Tell me if you think I'm mad.

Uncompromising, unconventional and complex,

for 14 years and 56 gripping episodes,

DCI Vera Stanhope has led the hit crime series.

CLAPS

She's a multi-faceted character,

and I think that's really a huge credit to the writers.

She's... HE INHALES

She's totally the moral centre of the story.

She is very clear on what is right and what is wrong.

So, what does this tell us? Hm?

He was secretive?

He was leading a double life? What?

You know, she'll pursue the truth wherever it leads her,

however uncomfortable.

She was... Vera's not like

your ordinary run-of-the-mill detec...

like you see on the telly.

DCI Vera Stanhope. DS Joe Ashworth.

She's a flawed character.

I mean, you know, most of the interesting characters

throughout film and television are flawed.

That's why we, as an audience, love them so much

because, you know, we can see ourselves in them.

Ma'am, there's a partial match for Sally on the key,

but also for other people who had access, plus persons unknown, so...

So you're telling me nothing. Brilliant.

Part of the charm is the fact that she's gruff

and dare I say sometimes rude,

but for the right reasons.

You know, she's trying to find the truth,

and anyone that gets in the way of that

is gonna suffer the wrath of Vera.

Come on!

Eight officers, you've had all day.

I think it's great to see

this woman still forging ahead in her career

and still capable of moments of self-doubt.

I seem to spend my life searching for patterns.

What if there isn't one?

I think one of the things that's so relatable about her

is the fact that she's just so honest.

It's not my job to make people happy, pet.

She doesn't suffer fools well. But, yeah, she has a heart.

Especially when someone is struggling.

Even criminals, if she thinks they've, erm,

kind of stumbled into crime,

she would understand that.

Please, I couldn't kill anyone.

I know people who could - that's why I was trying to get away.

It's a sob story. He's angry, he's violent.

No, he's a stupid 19-year-old who's just ruined his life.

I think when Vera was first aired,

people weren't that enamoured of Vera.

But they did like Joe Ashworth, played by David Leon.

It's obviously incredibly flattering.

And because he liked Vera and the team liked Vera,

people changed their mind about her.

I just like that fact, she didn't make any effort to make...

to ask you to like her.

I think it's lovely that, as a series,

none of the writers who've worked on Vera

have ever kind of over-explained her.

And I think Brenda, as a performer, really loved

that there is still mystery about this character

that we haven't probed into.

I said, I think we're done.

For now, pet, but don't go making any travel plans.

Quiet, please, rehearsal. Rehearsing.

Is it Josh's blood?

Confirming now, but I've said we need to know soon as.

Today on set is the one person who truly understands

the mysteries of DCI Vera Stanhope.

First book, The Crow Trap, came out in 1999,

so I've lived with Vera for a very long time.

I'm Ann Cleeves, and I'm a crime writer,

and I wrote the books on which the Vera television series is based.

The book was discovered by my fairy godmother Elaine Collins,

who went into an Oxfam shop in North London

to find a book to take on holiday and picked up The Crow Trap.

Elaine happened to be Books Executive for ITV Studios,

and they were looking for a book with a strong female character.

I've always tried to stay true to Ann's depiction of Vera.

She's not dependent on lipstick.

There's no romantic involvement to hamper the story.

With Vera, it just concentrates on the case.

My own daughter's next in line, is she? Come on.

Go on, pet. Come on.

Nothing's clean, is it? Everybody's tainted.

Do you know? I'd hate to be you.

I'd hate to be trapped in your skin. You're poison.

To ask a female actress

to look dishevelled and grumpy in every scene...

it's a tough one, isn't it?

She was huge at the time cos she'd just been nominated for two Oscars -

Secrets & Lies and for Little Voice.

So, what am I missing?

I can't imagine Vera being played by anyone else,

and that's there right from those early episodes.

If you give her half a good scene, she'll turn it into 150%.

You're a controlling nutjob who beats his wife.

I'm really not.

But in the early days,

there was one thing about Vera that bothered Brenda Blethyn...

..perfecting that tricky Geordie accent.

And how do we like our women, Mr Paul?

The first day, I came onto the set, and she listened to my voice...

Lovely Geoff.

..and thought, "That's the voice I should have."

If I'm struggling over something, I call on Geoff.

Say, "Geoff, how'd you say this?"

And that's how she's picked this voice up.

But I don't think, actually, I ever have cracked it.

Well, it's the last series of Vera going to happen here,

some of the filming.

So it's very exciting to see what's going to happen.

I've always watched Vera. It's nice to be filmed here as well.

It just a nice feeling.

But definitely the walk over there, the walk up here, "Can I help you?"

The dialogue round here.

Action.

It's always been a great team.

It's a great kind of family environment,

and the difference between kind of the youngest person on the crew

and the oldest is probably, you know, 50 years, I would think.

But everybody pulls together,

and, you know, it's a really lovely family.

Ready? And rehearsal.

And action.

And we are just about to do a scene

with myself, Brenda and a character called Freya,

where we confront her about her ex-boyfriend.

So, we're gonna track you with all the farmhouse in the background.

So, shall we just practise it?

Sorry about that, it's just it saves time.

Yeah, no, it's cool.

So, why are you asking about Josh?

Oh, we found his body yesterday, pet.

Josh?

FROM INSIDE: Boss!

Cut.

Well done, guys. I think that you've smashed it.

Joe, with me.

I suppose the most important other character,

besides Vera, is Joe Ashworth.

Can you send someone up there that's property near Steel Rigg?

He's always been Vera's conscience

because he's much more willing to play by the rules.

He's very similar to Vera,

whether he would admit that or not is another matter.

PHONE RINGS Joe's answering service. What?!

And he's also a little bit of a loner,

even though he's a family man.

That was your midwife. You what? And?

Your wife's waters just broke.

While she drives him nuts,

I think he holds her in the highest respect.

I think their relationship does make them better coppers,

but it's not always welcome.

Vera is so irascible.

She is a really strong character. Are you really gonna take her on?

Will you please do as you're told and go down to the court

so I can strike her off my list?!

BREATH SHAKES

If you're not too busy, love.

I think, you know, the two of them are

really like a surrogate mother and son.

I think she kind of loves him and kind of admires him

in a way that she doesn't really treat anyone else.

Am I the one who's getting doddery?

Well, there's no right answer to that one, is there?

I think he, in some respects, is almost at his...

kind of his happiest when they're together.

JILL HALFPENNY: But that happiness was short-lived.

After four years of solving cases side by side,

Joe took a promotion and left for London.

'I was heartbroken when David left.'

Oh! Oh, I couldn't believe he was going.

'Brenda and I have always been very close,

'and it was a really difficult decision for me to make.'

Felt at the time that I just needed a bit of a new challenge.

Joe's exit brought us a new face, Detective Sergeant Aiden Healy,

arriving in series five

as straight-talking northerner with a lot to prove.

This is DCI Stanhope. Ma'am, this is DS...

I know who you are.

Great to meet you.

'They're quite different characters, and, erm,

'Vera didn't have much time for him to start with.'

Oh, full of theories, aren't you? Someone's got to be.

'But he grew on her, of course,

'cos he turned out to be a good cop.'

For nine years, DS Aiden was Vera's right-hand man,

working alongside her team of dedicated detectives,

pathologists and constables.

But for series 13, there was a tale of the unexpected.

Well, look who the cat dragged in.

I didn't mean to interrupt.

I had the opportunity to come back,

and it was a privilege to sort of be able to come back

and finish the show.

I thought you might have missed us?

Well, I don't know what gave you that idea.

You swan in here in a new coat, no word of warning.

Like I say, I'm just observing.

I think in some respects, sometimes,

it's nice for a show to have a new injection of energy.

He comes back.

He's been on a journey where he has become much more senior

in those intervening years, so he comes back

as much more of an equal.

So, that dynamic between the two of them is really interesting.

You thought you were about to spread your wings without me on your back.

Everything useful I learnt about policing, I learnt from you.

Your time will come, Joe. Trust me.

One of the timeless features of this hit detective drama

is its beautiful locations,

which, true to the novels that inspired it,

have brought the stunning sights of the North East of England

to the world.

Well, one of the main characters in Vera is the landscape.

The seascape, the moors,

the beautiful, beautiful countryside.

One of the great things about filming in the North East

is that you can be in a city centre in the morning,

and you can be by the coast in the afternoon.

I feel like in some small part,

you know, we've kind of played our part in putting it on the map.

And for the curious, that place on the map

is England's most northern county, Northumberland.

All the people that I know who love Vera

love to come and visit Northumberland,

and they've never been before,

and it's purely because it's beautiful.

It is really, really lovely.

It's really important to know where Vera the character comes from

and who her people are and what her background is,

and I think we learn about that by the places that we visit.

So, we've got Vera's approach with Joe.

Er, she's gonna look through that window there.

It's one of the most challenging locations

from a location-department perspective.

We actually are out in the middle of nowhere kind of thing.

It's probably, what, 200 years old or something, that place.

It had to have the isolation,

and it had to have a place of meaning for her.

And we just felt that this was perfect.

I'm from the North East, so it's a huge thing for me

to showcase the authenticity of the North East.

It's something which we go into every script,

we go into every meeting, and that's the basis of what we do.

Unfortunately, it's heavy rain at the moment,

and the problem is that the scene following this

is gonna be probably completely dry.

MAN: Sarah. SARAH: Yeah?

Come much closer to the camera, please.

With heavy rain, it makes it difficult for the artists,

and all their costumes get wet and all the rest of it, so, yeah.

Luckily, my artist has got a hat on.

Otherwise...

Day's been saved by the hat, yeah.

Keep coming towards camera, Brenda, please.

MAN: Reset. And action.

There was a used syringe by him,

and the constrictive pupils and the cyanosis

suggest an accidental overdose.

Yeah, well, I want that heroin tested.

Course you do. I'll keep you updated, then.

Young lad in care involved in a murder.

Who'd question an overdose?

You think we should? MAN: Cut.

MAN: Cut there.

CHATTER

DCI Vera Stanhope stands with the greats of British crime drama.

Over 14 series in as many years,

she's solved 56 complex murder cases,

marking her as one of television's most iconic characters.

And that level of criminal behaviour

demands a team of dedicated, ambitious detectives.

MAN: Brilliant.

I play DC Kenny Lockhart - for 14 years now.

HE LAUGHS

My god.

Do that a lot, do you, Kenny? Talk out your backside?

I learnt from the best, Ma'am.

HE LAUGHS

Kenny, Jon Morrison, has been in it

since the second episode of series one.

What? Years.

He's really just a kind of... a normal, regular cop, you know.

Well, get that printed out for me. Er, I can't, it's deleted.

He was a juvenile at the time.

Well, you're good on computers, Kenny. Un-delete.

He is a bit of a whipping boy for Vera, you know.

Put that down, Kenny.

This is an incident room, not a greasy spoon.

Well, the first episode I was in,

I'd been going behind Vera's back to her old boss.

Kenny's got the reports from the lab about the intruder

at Mantel's property.

And what are you, the human shield? Kenny, out!

We do this scene where she finds out, and she says,

"Oh, I feel I want to throw this."

And I said, "Ah, go ahead, throw it at me." Boom.

Get out! You're not welcome here!

HE LAUGHS

She didn't pull any punches, you know what I mean?

And from then on, I thought,

"Ah, right, I'm gonna have to up my game here."

HE LAUGHS

SHE LAUGHS

Although Vera's always having a pop at him,

he's the one that's been on her team the longest,

and he's the one most loyal to her.

What are you looking at?

Go and get me a large drink and a psychiatrist.

At last, a cry for help.

My brother, a lot of his friends are cops.

And they all say Jon Morrison

is the most authentic cop on television.

He's just so good. Isn't he good?

I love him.

Hello. MAN: Hello.

Lovely to see you. You too.

'I play DC Steph Duncan.'

Steph, surveillance.

Erm, there was no surveillance near the crime scene, Ma'am.

We're still checking ANPR and speed cameras.

Now, Jac would've handed me a list of any stolen cars by now.

Since she's back in fraud, you need to step up.

I'll make sure I'm across it, Ma'am.

Aye, as soon as you like.

My family were huge fans of Vera,

so I would always watch Vera with my mum.

So it was quite a surreal thing to have an audition for something

that I was like, "Oh, we've watched this for ages."

'My first scenes were in Hexham Market.'

You'll have to take that one up with the boss.

Sometimes, you know, when you had some young actors coming on set,

they've only seen Vera on the telly.

You know, so they come in, they're quaking.

SHE LAUGHS

I mean, you always...

there's always this sort of nerves that come alongside,

especially someone like Brenda that you've watched for so long.

Ma'am?

Barmaid confirmed Danny'd had a skinful.

And so I make a point putting them at their ease,

crack a joke or do something silly or do something deliberately wrong

so that they know it's OK to do something wrong.

But as soon as you meet her,

they just melt away cos she's so personable, so kind and so lovely.

Good work, Steph.

One of my favourite episodes is Little Lazarus.

And that was Riley Jones' first episode.

He was a copper in uniform.

Ma'am.

What's going on?

I was on my way home.

Blind chance is what it was.

I was in one scene, and it was with Brenda,

and it was an amazing experience.

Your first time, is it, son?

Straight out of uni.

He did it so well

that we campaigned to get him a job in CID.

But it wasn't until years later that I found out

that Brenda had spoken to the producers.

Who's a good person?

And so when we came back to do series two,

erm, he came again.

We've met before, Ma'am.

Oh, PC Edwards.

There's not many people in her position,

I think, that would do that.

But later on, he joined CID.

And what is this? VERA LAUGHS

It was my dad's.

Well, it was either me or the scrapheap.

Oh, it was a devil to get her started.

ENGINE STARTS

It's a she, is it?

The Landy is a big character in the show.

That Landy is phenomenal.

It's sturdy, it's ballsy.

It's reliable. It's very much like Vera in many ways.

CLUTCH GRINDS

Hey, go easy! It's not a tank!

No, she's more of a battle axe.

It's a Land Rover Defender, and it's Brenda's Land Rover.

Was converted to automatic for her.

I've put small tyres on

so she'll get in and out easier and a step-on for her.

And just maintained it ever since.

Looked after her from day one.

It didn't ever break down on us while I was working with it.

Brenda loves to drive it.

In fact, she drives it better than anybody else.

SHOUTING, HORN BEEPS

Bloody hooligans.

When you consider it's a feature-length film,

we do it in a month, there's not a lot of time,

so if there's a shot of Vera driving along the horizon,

I don't really need to be in the car.

You what?

I'm Kit, Kit Littlejohn,

and I've been a driving double for Vera,

Brenda Blethyn, for nearly six years now.

So it's mainly driving the Landy.

If there's a fleeting glance, they're wearing the same costume,

so no-one'll ever question it.

That's amazing.

When we're out and about,

people think that we're the real deal, sometimes, don't they?

Which is quite amusing when they get a bit closer and realise it's not.

Well, it must be nice to be asked, anyway.

MAN: Let's get Kevin ready, please.

And action.

One of my favourite moments on the show

is when Brenda goes to visit Creelan.

She leaps out of the Landy, and then she gives a broad smile.

It's a glorious day.

It was really exciting when Kevin Whately was cast.

When Vera first discovers me,

I'm out fly fishing, I'm a retired cop.

And frankly, so what if a tiny forensic element

was a little bit flaky?

"So what?" SHE CHUCKLES

He's such a familiar, iconic figure

having played an inspector himself in the past.

So then the prospect of getting him and Brenda, you know,

so Vera and Inspector Lewis,

even though it's not, and it's a different character.

I think that's a bit of a treat for the audience.

536, take one. Yeah.

Camera set and... action.

You wanna hope nobody pops up to comb through all your old cases

one of these days, Vera, accusing you of all sorts.

If one of my cases did wrongly convict someone,

I'd want it questioned. And damn my reputation!

Must have been fairly weird for him to come in

to play a guest part in Vera.

But I think he's amazing. He did brilliantly well,

and it was wonderful to see those two playing together.

She is an incredibly phenomenal professional.

Her... The interrogation of script,

her sort of striving for authenticity

and perfection every day keeps us all on our toes.

I have to learn what's gonna be filmed the following day,

and it's usually quite a lot.

I might spot some sort of anomaly in it.

There was one episode where the caravan blew up

and someone died in the caravan,

and they're looking at it, and they found a brooch of a bird.

This it?

Yeah, that's a bird.

But it was never mentioned in the script - what bird is it?

Cos she would know, and, you know, it's just things like that.

Just detail. I cared about it.

In fact, everybody cared about it, everyone, erm...

I think it shows.

Yeah, she's 100%, you know, dedicated to the show

and what she's doing, and, you know, for example,

the incident board in the police station.

She takes, like, a forensic interest in what is on that board.

'And we're just doing a scene in the incident room now.'

Brenda likes when everything's exact,

so when she's looking through her files,

she's looking at a piece of evidence,

she can not only read off it,

but she understands it and gets into the character more.

The character is the most important thing.

No matter who it is you're working with,

you strive to make it as real as possible.

You're protecting him?

No, I'm not.

I have a log of his movements on the day.

Oh, there have been so, so many wonderful actors in Vera.

We had the cream of British talent coming in.

George Costigan came in.

William Telling?

That's me.

It's always wonderful when you get a well-known actor

who wants to be in the show.

Aye.

Jill Halfpenny, who is very much a local actor,

has appeared in one.

I'm not sorry I killed her.

Sorry I got caught.

This show has always looked to move forward,

and has introduced so many great actors over the years -

you know, people like Cush Jumbo.

JILL HALFPENNY: Cush's career led her across the Atlantic

to the hit US show The Good Fight.

Let's take, erm, Kingsley.

Definitely one of the two.

Kingsley now, what he's done in Hollywood, it's amazing.

Yeah, I think there's something very special about Vera

in the sense that, you know, it has given opportunities

to so many actors along the way.

Jodie Comer being one of them.

Yeah. Yeah, I did.

As well as Charlie Heaton,

now better known for Stranger Things.

That's the lad there.

You sure?

Yeah.

In any actor's career,

I think just being on good shows helps, doesn't it?

Nice.

Filming this globally popular series up in the North East of England

has, over time, built up

a uniquely committed and close-knit crew.

We have an enormous crew, because it's a big, big show.

We're covering a lot of ground.

It's the warmest crew I've ever worked with

and the most eager and the most able,

and everybody has earned their place there.

I think it makes a big difference that

a large percentage of the crew are from the region.

Everyone brings their A game, and they're so proud of the region.

I'd say 70% of the team come back year in, year out.

Not because of the salary,

and, well... and not because of it's close to home,

but it's because they love the show.

The wholesome thing about Vera for me

is that it creates a huge amount of employment, you know,

for technicians.

There's probably 40, 50 people in this room -

technicians, crowd artists, actors.

It's just amazing what Brenda's done over these 14 years.

I'm part of the props department on Vera.

I do the standby, did some dressing.

So, there's about 14 years

of accumulated lamps and office stuff,

that we've just kept over the years.

It's just something I've always been passionate about,

and I just enjoy the job.

OK. Happy to shoot?

Jay, explain it's you next time.

Paul, we've worked with

probably more than any other director on this,

and I just love, love working with him.

I know that's your favourite shot.

LAUGHTER

I'm one of those people who have what they call imposter syndrome,

and if a director comes in who I don't know,

or I'm not familiar with their work,

I straight away think they know better than me.

Can we cut there?

Cut, thank you. Very good indeed, thank you.

Let's do one more.

I love working with Claire, but it was tricky the first time.

I didn't know if she trusted me or not, but...

and then I soon found out that she did.

I think Vera's brought an enormous amount

to me as a director, and to the way I work.

We're currently working in Vera's office

in the police station, which always feels like home,

and we're filming a scene with Vera and Kenny.

'Brenda works so hard. She's across all of the scripts

'for all of the episodes all of the time.

'She's across the edits for episodes that have already shot.'

She's thinking about her own character.

She might be on a windy clifftop,

or she might be blown away on a beach

with her hat flying in the air.

Every day is different for her, but she comes so prepared.

'It is a long, gruelling day,

'so it's important for me to be there...

'for it to be a pleasant atmosphere on set.'

PHONE RINGS

Oh, dear.

There's somebody's phone on the desk.

Mine.

LAUGHTER

'The crew work non-stop.'

I have a few bits where I can sit down

while they're setting up the next scene,

but they don't - they're on the go all the time.

WOMAN: Guys, you wanna come back here and get your stuff,

and we'll get you started?

Well, it's not every day you expect

150 witches to show up on the doorstep, you know.

HE LAUGHS

JILL HALFPENNY: This will be one of the biggest scenes

ever filmed by the Vera team.

The hair, make-up and costume departments

have just a few hours to prepare the SAs,

better known as supporting artists, for filming.

So, we've got a big witch hunt today.

We've got 150 SAs to get through.

50 of them are featured, and 100 are not featured.

This is my last one. SHE LAUGHS

Paul, the director, wanted things to be quite spooky and dark,

but not necessarily too scary.

And I think these kind of do the job really well.

It was like nothing I'd seen before on Vera -

just hordes of people, erm...

in the most fantastic costumes.

We're looking for a missing person,

and we end up getting caught up in a witch hunt.

We still wanna get that "whoa!" EXTRAS: Whoa!

And we're set. Action.

EXTRAS CHEER, SHAKE TAMBOURINES

DRUMBEAT WOMAN: You know the rules.

All these costumes are gonna make finding her a nightmare.

Now, the witch can be anywhere within the set area.

HORN BEEPING

WOMAN: Cut! Cut!

It's always kind of very surprising and satisfying,

because you are up kind of making a show

in the North East of England

that someone in Sweden or Canada or New Zealand,

you know, is watching that two years later

and feeling such a kind of strong emotional attachment

you know, to the show and to the characters.

DUBBED IN GERMAN:

Broadcast in 187 territories worldwide,

Vera is always on,

whether you're streaming it on ITVX in the UK or BritBox in America.

It's quite thrilling, actually, to be in something so popular.

DUBBED IN FRENCH:

I think Vera's so popular throughout the world

because she is that strong woman of a certain age.

So there are strong women of a certain age

throughout the world who are cheering her on,

because she represents them.

DUBBED IN FRENCH:

Look - Mairi's hat! She made it.

Another woodland creature for you.

"Oh, don't look at the mess," Mairi's screaming.

LAUGHTER We're packing up.

We are packing up, so... It's usually much cleaner than this.

Yeah, it's usually... so tidy.

So, Vera's coming to a magnificent end, series 14,

and today we're selling off

some of the costume to cast and crew

to raise money for a local hospice.

And so the cast and crew'll come through,

and they'll bag a bargain, something glamorous for...

for the wrap party. Maybe the wrap party.

Of course, there are a few key items not for sale.

As a character, Vera's got a allergy to the sun,

and that's why she wears her hat and a coat,

and she's covered at all times.

Is it working?

I should say so, yeah.

Don't look there. Brenda Blethyn's thermal underwear.

Don't look at that!

The costume design is very cleverly done,

so that everything ends at the hip.

So when people would say to me, "How much padding do you wear?"

it's a bit like saying to a lady, "When's the baby due?"

I didn't want to say, "Oh, I don't actually wear any padding!"

That's me and the clever costume design.

I've grown into it now, over 14 years.

So, this is actually Brenda's favourite Vera blouse.

She calls it her Brussels sprout, because of the pattern.

This is a selection of scarves.

So, what Brenda tends to do now is she does one scarf per episode.

And the scarf that she's wearing for her final episode

is the scarf she wore in her first episode.

It's a costume book end. We're quite proud of it.

So, along with this blouse...

..that'll be the last Vera costume ever.

I always remember reading that final script

and being so interested to know how it was all gonna play out.

It gave us the chance to delve into Vera's past a little bit,

and see a little bit more of who she is

and where she's come from.

The case that she's trying to solve,

there are echoes of her own background,

which is why she keeps thinking back.

'Her father, he always considered her to be doing a man's job.'

We'd never done that before, going back into Vera as a young girl

and seeing her life.

You can't join the police.

You won't change my mind, Dad.

The police is no place for a lass.

You're wrong. Am I?

You'd best prove it, then, pet.

Cut.

I thought that looked great, Brenda.

We'll... We'll find out in the edit, won't we?

BRENDA: 'I didn't want Vera killed off,

'because I suspected that she'd be living on in the books.'

'She's a sensible woman, Vera.'

She knows when it's time to call it a day,

as in the same way Brenda Blethyn knows

when it's time to call it a day.

Erm... you just sense when the time is right.

OK, guys, last day on series 14 of Vera.

Last day ever.

Shall I leave that photo there?

And is this the one you put first out?

Yes, that's what I meant. Yeah, exactly, yeah.

Scene, Mark.

Camera set and action.

The last day's filming on set,

the last three setups we had,

I have to say, I-I felt very emotional.

It's her packing up her stuff and backing out of the office,

and, er, I could've cried, to be honest.

I, er... Mm.

I think Brenda couldn't talk for a little while.

Oh, I... It's coming back to me. SHE CHUCKLES

Yeah, erm...

I don't think it was until, like, the last day

when it was the reality of this is gonna...

by six o'clock, this'll be over.

It's just been an absolute pleasure

to have been part of the show for this long.

You know, I'm sure people will be watching the show

for many years to come.

There's something terribly sad, also,

about this whole thing ending, because we feel like we know Vera.

I'm so happy that we're doing the show justice it deserves,

and I'm very sad, but a very, very positive feeling

that we can all pull down the shutters tonight

and just feel we've done our best and we've been a wonderful team.

It was very sad that all these people

who've lived and worked together for such a long time

won't be seeing each other again.

'These people are my friends. They're not colleagues.'

I couldn't have asked for a better 14 years,

to be quite honest, you know.

I think for as much as anything, for us all,

there's a sense of, like, having made friends for life.

After starting as a young recruit in the Met,

Vera retired from the force with a new four-legged sidekick,

and today on set, life mirrors fiction,

as Brenda brings Jack, her own dog, to this final farewell.

Oh, it's so bittersweet.

Really, really is,

cos I've loved every minute of this job.

Pat? Happy?

Jack!

Perfect.

Brilliant. Well done.

APPLAUSE

'Mm.

'I love Vera.'

SHE CHUCKLES

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