ITV Vera actress Brenda Blethyn shares her concerns hours before final series airs

Vera's Brenda Blethyn has admitted "it was time" for the ITV crime drama to end.

It's been nearly 14 years since the actress made her debut as no nonsense detective DCI Stanhope, with her making her first appearance as Vera in the show's pilot episode Hidden Depths back in 2011.

Vera quickly went onto be one of the most popular crime series on TV but ITV bosses announced that the final ever series, which will air on January 1 and January 2.

Brenda appeared on This Morning on New Year's Eve (December 31) to speak to Alison Hammond and Dermot O'Leary and opened up about waving goodbye to the iconic character.

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BAFTA-winning Brenda told Dermot and Alison: "I've loved every minute of it but I suddenly realised I hadn't had a summer with my husband and I thought I'd quite like one. It was time. The writings's always so good, the stories are good and they're true to Ann Cleeves' creation."

Speaking about her last day on set, she said: "It was emotional. There were tears not just from me. Everyone got on so well, there wasn't an ego in sight in 14 years. It was just great.

"When I'm working, I'm absolutely full-on and giving it 100% but in a quiet moment I sit down and think 'have I made a terrible mistake here?' and when it comes to March, when I'd be packing my bag to go up there, I'm going to be miserable."

The actress has quashed the suggestion of any future series of Vera, taking aim at other shows which have gone down the route of creating prequels following the conclusion of the main series.

When asked if there were plans for a Vera spin-off, she replied: "Not that I'm aware of. No, I've not heard any." She continued: "People sometimes say is there going to be a prequel? Personally, I don't think they ever work."

The actress admitted that, while she does enjoy some prequels, she doesn't think their connections to the original show remain. On ITV drama Endeavour, a prequel to the long-running Inspector Morse series, she commented: "That's not to say I don't like Endeavour."

"I do, and I love Morse, and I loved Endeavour, but I saw no connection between the two," she confessed to The Sun. "It was just an excuse to make a period set piece, which I liked, but it had nothing to do with Morse as far as I could tell."

According to the synopsis for the last series: "In the first episode, DCI Vera Stanhope is called to the banks of the Tyne where the body of a young man has been discovered by some anglers.

"A tangled web of a broken relationship, secret love, grudges, regret, and fraud begins to emerge – has our former inmate been served cold justice, or does his death run deeper?"

Vera season 14 will arrive Wednesday, January 1 at 8pm on ITV1