On Friday nights, after "Gardening Australia", we always settle in for our VERA-night when Brenda Blethyn returns to the ABC as the unorthodox but brilliant DCI Vera Stanhope, investigating more chilling crimes only she can solve.
Born in 1946 in Ramsgate, Kent, England, she graduated from technical college and worked as a stenographer and bookkeeper with British Rail until her late twenties. Saving money during her time there, she took a risk and enrolled herself at the at The Guildford School of Acting in Guildford, Surrey, England and then left her British Rail years behind.
Brenda was nothing short of superb in "Little Voice" and hilarious in "Saving Grace", but she became part of our weekly routine as "Vera".
Some episodes may even be repeats but with the nights getting longer and my memory getting shorter, no repeat is ever a repeat (is that why I finished up with five copies of the same "Grumpy old men"?)
Light the fire, heat up the "Glühwein"; we're ready for our VERA-night.
