Brenda Blethyn and Jessica Reynolds portray determined Emma Harte in A Woman of Substance
For fans of British crime dramas, Brenda Blethyn has become practically synonymous with DCI Vera Stanhope, the character she portrayed for 14 seasons on Brit hit Vera. Following that series’ finale last year, Blethyn has traded in Vera’s signature bucket hat and scruffy raincoat for a dazzlingly chic wardrobe for A Woman of Substance, a new series based on Barbara Taylor Bradford’s bestselling novels.
Originally adapted for television back in 1984, A Woman of Substance tells the decades-spanning saga of Emma Harte. When viewers first meet Emma it’s in 1911, where she toils as a kitchen maid in a large country mansion in Yorkshire. Her employers are the Fairley family, who own a local mill that’s brought them wealth by exploiting their workers.
“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,” reads the series’ synopsis. “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.”
The 1980s version of A Woman of Substance starred Debra Kerr and Jenny Seagrove, and proved to be a massive hit, garnering U.K. viewership of 14 million. As in the earlier version, the story plays out in two timelines, with Blethyn playing Emma the mogul in the 1970s, while the younger version of the character is played by Jessica Reynolds.
Speaking with Deadline, Reynolds explained that she was striving for a performance that transcended the typical costume drama cliches. “I wanted to really go there and try and bring what I have as a modern woman in 2026 through that kind of period lens,” she said. “I just wanted it to feel as real as possible.”
Reynolds’ work in the series has earned high praise from her co-star. “Well, firstly I’d like to say that Jessica Reynolds is an absolute breath of fresh air. What a wonderful performance she gives in this series, I think she’s fantastic!” Blethyn told Channel 4. “Funnily enough, I looked through my photos to find a photo of me at that age, and I looked just like Jessica, it’s absolutely uncanny.”
According to Blethyn, she’d planned to take a break after 14 seasons of Vera, but was then offered a film (Dragonfly, starring opposite Andrea Riseborough). “Then it was hot on the heels of that job that I was offered A Woman of Substance, so all of my plans for relaxing at home went out the window!” she joked. “But I was so pleased to take on a story of this magnitude, and Emma is exactly the same age as me in the story, we were both 79. I was so pleased to try something new because I really hadn’t done anything like this before.”
Blethyn is hopeful that viewers will be as struck by the complexity and resilience of the character — in both her iterations — as she was. “I hope they’ll care about the characters and I hope they’ll learn something and see that women are so strong — Emma’s achievements all come from sheer hard work, grit, daring and not taking no for an answer,” she said. “What I love about dramas is that they also allow you to change your opinion and make decisions as you go. You might have one opinion about somebody, or preconceived ideas, but that changes along the way as you gain more understanding about the situation and the characters, that’s always interesting to experience.”
Beyond the opportunity to play a juicy role in a compelling story, there was an added bonus: Emma’s chic and fashionable wardrobe “Coming off of so many years on Vera, it was quite nice to dress up in a few nice togs too!” Blethyn added.
“It was nice to take the hat and mac off,” she told Sagas. “It was really exciting, just everything about it — all the designers and makeup artists did a wonderful job, so it took a few years off me — ironed out the skin, you know. Because I did [Vera] for so long, it really was very nice.”
A Woman of Substance, streaming Wednesdays on BritBox