Vera s14e00 Episode Script

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]