Following her emotional exit from Vera earlier in 2025, Brenda Blethyn has wasted no time reminding audiences of her formidable range as a dramatic actress. The 79-year-old British icon, who bid farewell to ITV’s long-running crime series after 14 seasons as the no-nonsense DCI Vera Stanhope, trades her signature rain mac and bucket hat for a more vulnerable, introspective role in the gritty new thriller Dragonfly. Directed by Paul Andrew Williams and released in UK cinemas on November 7, 2025, the film has garnered critical acclaim since its Tribeca Film Festival debut in June, earning a 96% Rotten Tomatoes score for its “mesmerizing” performances and “unpredictable” tension. Paired with Andrea Riseborough in a chameleon-like turn, Blethyn’s portrayal of Elsie, a neglected pensioner whose quiet life unravels through an unlikely friendship, marks a poignant pivot—shedding Vera’s tough exterior for a character whose fragility conceals a storm of secrets.
Dragonfly, a taut 98-minute drama produced by Giant Productions and Meraki Films, opens as a tender exploration of isolation in modern Britain. Elsie (Blethyn), a widowed retiree in a rundown London flat, becomes an unexpected ally to her troubled younger neighbor, Colleen (Riseborough), a rough-edged woman grappling with personal demons. What begins as small acts of kindness—shopping, cleaning, shared cups of tea—evolves into a profound bond that unearths buried traumas. But Williams, known for The Tourist and Kill List, masterfully spirals the narrative into Hitchcockian territory: Whispers of resentment from Elsie’s guilt-ridden son (Jason Watkins) and Colleen’s volatile past collide in a web of suspicion and psychological unraveling. “Have we become a nation of strangers?” the film’s tagline asks, a question that resonates as Elsie’s vulnerability exposes the cracks in societal care systems.
Blethyn’s Elsie is a revelation—a departure from Vera’s bulldog tenacity. Here, she embodies quiet devastation: Eyes that flicker with unspoken loss, hands trembling as they clutch a faded photo album. “Brenda’s at her very best,” raved Radio Times, praising how she “infuses Elsie’s fragility with a simmering strength that erupts in the film’s chilling twists.” Riseborough, an Oscar nominee for To Leslie, matches her beat-for-beat, their chemistry a delicate dance of dependency and danger. Watkins adds layers as the resentful son, his passive-aggression a slow poison. Williams’ script, lean and unflinching, draws from real-life stories of elderly isolation, amplified by a haunting score from Theo Green-Simms that underscores the creeping dread.
Blethyn’s transition from Vera feels serendipitous. After 81 episodes spanning 2011 to 2025, the show’s finale in January left fans bereft, with Blethyn’s tearful goodbye—”Vera’s been my family”—airing to 6.2 million viewers. “It was time,” she told This Morning in April. “Vera gave me purpose, but I crave roles that peel back the layers.” Dragonfly delivers: Elsie isn’t a sleuth solving crimes; she’s the crime against humanity—forgotten in plain sight. Blethyn, a BAFTA winner for Secrets & Lies (1996), has always excelled in such portraits of quiet power, from Little Voice to Anne Frank: The Whole Story. “Andrea and I connected instantly,” she shared at the London Film Festival. “It’s about women holding each other up when the world looks away.”
Critics hail it as a “masterclass in restraint,” The Guardian calling it “Blethyn’s darkest triumph—a thriller that whispers its horrors.” Festival buzz propelled a U.S. release via Conic Films in early 2026, positioning Dragonfly as awards bait. For Blethyn, it’s liberation: “Vera was armor; Elsie is skin.” As intergenerational bonds fray in real life—U.K. elderly isolation up 20% per Age UK— the film resonates, a call for connection amid disconnection.
Blethyn’s return isn’t nostalgia; it’s reinvention. From Geordie grit to London loneliness, she proves age sharpens the blade. Dragonfly doesn’t just fly—it soars, a testament to an actress whose range defies time. In a year of farewells, Blethyn whispers: The queen endures.
